For over a hundred years, endless rows of oak drawers filled with index cards served as the primary guide for collection information for countless Library staff. The Library’s card catalog is actually a combination of many catalogs and served as the public’s main bibliographic information access point for books and periodicals until 1980, and despite our current online catalog, staff continue to use the wealth of information found on these index cards. Recently the Library decided to move these catalog cards from the oak cabinets found across the Capitol Hill campus to offsite storage and the Collections Management Division was tasked with inventorying and transporting the cards while simultaneously ensuring their accessibility.
Geanie Jackson is the new administrative officer within the Collections Management Division (CMD), but she is not new to the Library of Congress. While Geanie has been a go-to for all sorts of topics over the years, in her current role she is the beating heart of CMD. In this interview, Geanie shares insights into her career journey, daily responsibilities, and wide-ranging personal interests that make her a much-loved part of the Library's team.
By teaching Joe, my cat, about archives and preservation, I teach myself the best ways to communicate for each project or outreach event I participate in. Joe serves as my test audience, and while he might not directly tell me if I need to expand upon or parse out a section, presenting to him helps me analyze it for myself.
The following is a guest post from Lillian Williams, 2024 Junior Fellow in the Preservation Services Division. Before I came to the Library of Congress, I excitedly told many people about my upcoming internship and the Unfurling the Reel Deal: A Journey Through Microfilm History project. I got the same two questions each time: …
In 2022, a software company operating a library inventory management system went out of business, leaving several large libraries in the lurch. Over the last couple years, the Library of Congress, along with other libraries in the ReCAP Consortium got together to create FETCH, a new inventory management system.
