The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded initiative, Of the People: Widening the Path, supports the Library’s Internship and Fellowship Programs (IFP) division in its efforts to expand paid internships across the Library. IFP coordinates a portfolio of over 80 programs offering a wide range of experiential learning and career development placements that advance the academic and professional pursuits of post-secondary school students, and emerging or established scholars from the higher education community.
With this four-year grant from the Mellon Foundation, we plan to bring over 260 interns to the Library through three different programs. The goals of these internships are to recruit diverse talent and to bring to light the collections that more fully represent the rich cultural heritage of the United States.
Let’s introduce the three internship programs!
The Library will expand the Archives, History and Heritage Advanced (AHHA) Internship program to recruit interns from all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), having successfully piloted the program with Howard University. AHHA interns will work closely with professional archivists and librarians on Library collections that help share a more inclusive story of the American experience.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Junior Fellows Program (JFP), which offers a ten-week summer internship for undergraduate and graduate students to complete projects that focus on making the Library’s diverse collections and resources more accessible to users. Upon completion of their assignments, Junior Fellows work closely with Library curators and specialists to plan and present a display of their most significant discoveries and accomplishments at the annual Display Day event.
The Library of Congress Internships (LOCI) program is a brand new initiative that will work with external organizations to source qualified candidates for placement in a variety of internships throughout the Library. A key goal of this new program is to support the Library in expanding recruitment of applicants from historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities, and Asian American and Pacific Islander serving institutions. The assignments will span many professional fields at the Library, including information technology, human capital, event planning, communications, as well as, collections support and research.
To support its expanded programs effort, IFP will hire two program specialists. We’ll post internship and job openings here on the blog. Be sure to subscribe to receive alerts so you can be the first to know about these exciting opportunities!