Behind the Scenes: A Rotating Digital Perspective

Below is an interview with Vanathy Senthilkumar, who served on the Library of Congress Digital Conversion Team. Vanathy recently accepted a new job as a Librarian at the Government Printing Office, where we wish her the best of luck.

Melissa: Like other members of the Library’s Digital Conversion Team, you serve on rotating details in different divisions, collaborating with their staff on digital projects. What does this involve?

Vanathy: Those of us on the Digital Conversion team are constantly on detail, which for us involves working for a few months at a time in one particular division of the library, then moving on to the next division and so on. During my 3 ½ years working at the Library I’ve been detailed to four different areas: the Serial & Government Publications Division, the Geography & Map Division, the Manuscript Division, and the Prints & Photographs Division.

My Geography & Map and Prints & Photographs (P&P) work has been heavier on digital conversion, or scanning, while my Manuscript Division and Serial Division work generally consisted of metadata verification. In P&P I’ve also prepared metadata for upload to the Library’s content transfer system and created derivatives (smaller versions of the same file) using command line scripts. I’m very familiar with the work of P&P at this point, since I’ve been detailed here four or five times.

Melissa: What kinds of images have you worked on while detailed to P&P?

Vanathy:  Many of the materials I’ve worked with are considered high-demand collection material. Some of the most memorable images I came across are from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) Collection. I’ve come across a lot of interesting things in the FSA collection that reflect strange aspects of everyday life. As an example, I came across people digging graves at cemeteries.

The always-popular FSA collection has a lot to say about life’s daily activities and stresses, not just for those living in poverty but also those with apparently comfortable jobs. After scanning the images at high resolution it’s amazing to see the level of detail that results, like the fine lines in a person’s face. Or, in the case of the Office of War Information artist below, you really see how his project is shaping up. P&P has the resulting poster in its collections as well.

Then again, sometimes you just see cornfield after cornfield.

To give an idea of other kinds of images that I’ve scanned, recently I scanned an entire book containing images by Francisco Goya that, when they are ultimately available on the Library’s Web site, will improve upon the old scans of selected images that we have now. The illustrations were gloomy and macabre, and at times disturbing. I sometimes look things up when they pique my interest. In the case of the Goya book, I learned that the artist wanted his work to be a critique on society, which accounts for the heavy subject matter.

I’ve also worked on items that go out for exhibit loan. P&P likes to make digital files so there is a record of what went out, and the scans we make are kind of like visual receipts.

Melissa: Is there a particular project that stands out when you think about the work you’ve done for the Library of Congress over the past few years?

Vanathy: I really enjoyed working on the collections related to the Library’s recent exhibits on World War I: Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I and World War I: American Artists View the Great War.  The iconic image of Uncle Sam telling would-be soldiers, “I want you for U.S. Army,” in particular stands out.

I worked on scanning a lot of the P&P images that went into the collection, but I also worked on World War I materials from other divisions, and it was fun to see the connections between the different formats. For example, I worked on World War I newspapers from the Serial Division and Geography & Map Division materials that showed troop movements and battle fronts.

Melissa: What skills gained through your work at the Library of Congress do you expect to carry with you to your new position?

Vanathy: My work with metadata will carry over, at least conceptually. Metadata provides the building blocks for access. In my new position as an integrated library systems (ILS) librarian at a different federal agency I will be working heavily with metadata, working to make information and resources easier to find.

Learn More

• Take a look at the online versions of World War I: American Artists View the Great War and  Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I.  You still have an opportunity to view the latter in person, through January 21, 2019.
• View more art, and artists at work, in the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection.
• Browse additional posters made by the federal government, from the Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection.
• See all “Behind the Scenes” interviews with Prints & Photographs Division staff.
• Read a blog post about the “Men Working Together!” poster.