2024 Junior Fellows Display Day Returns Onsite

This is a guest post by Le’Evelyn Hammet, one of the 2024 Display Day program coordinators. Le’Evelyn was 2023 participant in the Archives, History and Heritage Advanced (AHHA) internship program at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress continued its long-standing tradition of holding Junior Fellows Display Day with this year’s happening on July 17. This event provided a cohort of 40 Junior Fellows, 20 onsite and 20 remote, working on a range of 30 projects to share their research findings to an audience of Library Staff and the public. This culminating event allowed Junior Fellows to showcase their nine-week long extensive research progress to over 1,300 attendees.

This year, the event transitioned to a new hybrid format for on-site attendees for the first time. Audience members made up of of visitors, Library staff and alumni could view the showcased projects from both on-site and remote Junior Fellows by walking through the Jefferson Building’s Mahogany Row. Attendees engaged with fellows and their projects through Zoom presentations on display screens and in-person tables with curated collection items. The projects covered a range of topics from the American Banking Association Papers to the South Asian Language Microfiche Collection.

As a part of the Year of Digital Accessibility Junior Fellowship project, Emily Paterson was able to analyze and assess accessibility standards by creating a report structure of PowerPoints and Word Documents. “We’ve used these checklists to assess numerous files and provided guidance to staff on how to correct identified issues,” Emily said. The remote Junior Fellow also notes that one aspect of her project that she was particularly proud of showcasing on Display Day was how “this work improves access for people with disabilities by reducing barriers to the Library’s communications.”

While working with Library’s collections, many Junior Fellows were allowed to access Library of Congress’s digital holdings such as images. Ilayda Dogan shares that her project group “designed a “DC Collage Creator” web interface that would allow users to use LOC images in a digital collage Artscape” as a part of the remote Scripts, Interfaces, and Notebooks, Oh My: Exploring Library Data in Public project. “I was most proud to showcase my prototype design, which I learned how to use different design tools and principles for, and my data visualizations for the image metadata, which involved a lot of trial and error and data cleaning,” Ilayda noted.

As their internship came to a close, the Junior Fellows reflected on the process of deepening their understanding and honing their professional skills during this experience. Alaina Economus worked on the Revising Classification and Subject Access for Slavic Materials project remotely. She conducted research related to the history of Latvia, Poland-Lithuania, Livonia, and medieval and early modern Eastern Europe to design a new classification schedule and headings for the history of Latvia. “A ‘discovery’, of sorts, that I made was how difficult classification and subject work really is. I was familiar with these standards as a cataloger and used them daily but being able to see and participate in their creation and maintenance gave me a much better appreciation for the process,” Alaina said.

Lillian Williams, an on-site Junior Fellow, shared that she “was surprised to learn what a large operation microfilm creation once was at the Library, with about 7,000 feet of negative film produce a day in the 1980s. [I] also found many surprising uses of microfilm through history, such as saving mail space during WWII.” Lillian worked on the Unfurling LOC’s Reel Deal: A Journey through Microfilm History project to research and curate a history of microfilm and the transition to digital media at the Library of Congress to create a story map. This event was filled with unexpected discoveries for Display Day attendees as well. “It was fun to interact with younger attendees at Display Day, many encountering a microfilm reader for the first time who were impressed by its capabilities and how small the images on microfilm are,” Lillian shared.

Attendees were able to learn details about collections and projects happening at the Library by asking questions, gaining a deeper understanding of research processes, viewing, and even listening to curated Library materials. Junior Fellows were able to discuss their overall experiences, and how the 2024 Junior Fellows Program aligned with their professional and educational goals for the future.

The 2025 Junior Fellows Program application will open Fall 2024. Subscribe to the jobs and internship lists and set up alerts on USA jobs to monitor updates.