We are happy to spotlight Michelle Minor, a Digital Imaging Specialist in Digitization Services, who recently completed a staff detail with the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI). In the post below, she shares about her experiences working in the Library’s Digitization Services Section and some of her favorite moments from working with the CCDI team.
What is your job at the Library? What do you do?
I am a Digital Imaging Specialist in the Library’s Digitization Services Section. I process, execute, and manage the digitization of the Library’s cultural heritage collection materials in support of research, archival, and display materials.
What brought you to the Library?
When I was a senior in high school, my cooperative education work-study student coordinator recommended me to interview for a Library-Aid position at the Library. I was selected and began my LOC career in Congressional Research Services (CRS).
How did you hear about CCDI? What interested you about working with the CCDI team?
I have always been interested in learning about and working with different communities of color, so I was excited to see the Library/CCDI post the detail opportunity.
What has been your favorite project you’ve worked on in Digitization Services?
The Rosa Parks collection is my favorite and one of the most memorable projects I have worked on in Digitization Services. Initially, it was delivered in many boxes filled with random items in no particular order. It was like looking through old family photo albums because the materials were so relatable to my life and Black culture. Some of the items were Ebony and Jet magazine subscriptions. They featured pictures of the best afros, platform shoes, Superfly suits, hair picks, beautiful Black men and women, advertisements for afro sheen hair products, and even the Jet magazine centerfold.
There were also two letters that stood out to me. They were letters written to Coretta Scott King honoring her husband Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after his death. One was a beautifully written letter from Dr. Betty Shabazz acknowledging the work of Dr. King and offering her condolences to Mrs. King. The other was from a doctor in India expressing his disbelief and disappointment about the racism in America.
What has been your favorite experience while working on the CCDI team? Why?
Wow, I’ve had many favorite experiences!
- Collaborating with an intellectual, highly skilled, kind, and generous group of colleagues.
I gained so much knowledge from the team, my input was valued, and I felt very welcomed. - The Office Hours and Listening Sessions.
I got the opportunity to experience “behind the scenes” work into some of the phenomenal remixes of Library collections. Also, I got to meet and talk to the amazing artists behind the work, such as CCDI’s Artist/Scholar in Residence Dr. Allie Martin and the Library’s Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren. I felt like I had a VIP pass with backstage access. - Supporting CCDI at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF).
Martha’s Vineyard has a rich and complex African American history. The town of Oak Bluffs, which is on the island, was someplace I was interested in visiting because of the history behind the Inkwell Beach, festivities, and cultural experiences (one of which is MVAAFF). The detail allowed me the opportunity to contribute in the making of Black history as well as Library of Congress history by supporting CCDI’s Artists/Scholars in Residence with their amazing works of art at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.
CCDI is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path program with support from the Mellon Foundation. This program provides fellowships and grants to individuals and institutions for projects that innovate, imagine, and remix Library materials to highlight the stories and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color from any of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and its territories and commonwealths (Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands). Learn more about CCDI here.
For more about the Library’s historic Of the People initiative, click here.