June 8
Day 3 of orientation week was pretty interesting, definitely the best day so far. You know - out of all three of them. We spent most of the day with Frank Evina (Senior Copyright Information Specialist). He's basically a copyright guru and spent about 2 hours or more explaining the ins and outs of Copyright to us. I actually was pretty interested in it and now FINALLY have an understanding of the whole process - no thanks to Martha & a semester of 618, of course. If I took the 618 exam again, I might actually willingly try to answer the copyright question now! Interestingly, the first three types of works that were protected by Copyright were maps, charts and books. Now, there are like zillions of things that can get someone a copyright. Okay, maybe not zillions... but a lot. So everyone who registers their creative work for a copyright is required to send two copies of that work to the Copyright Office, which passes it on to the Library. Therefore, technically, the Library has held two copies of every copyrighted work - however, it doesn't hold on to everything (although we were told that 'weeding' isn't in the Library's vocabulary).
Anyway, after the Copyright information session (seriously, I'm not kidding, I found this fascinating), we got a tour of the Copyright Office, which basically meant a tour of their immense card catalog. They have cards for every item ever given a copyright, since 1890 (I think that was the year…). Things from 1978 onward are available electronically but the previous 100 years are only found in these card catalogs. On the tour, we also got to walk through the mailroom, I guess you'd call it. Book cart after book cart held two copies of every recent book seeking a Copyright. Some of my fellow interns were looking for the latest Harry Potter book but we didn't see it. They figured it was too early for the Copyright Office to have it, but I honestly doubt it. I worked in a book store and I know how early we would get street-dated stuff… I'm sure it was already sent in for a Copyright, although it does depend on how much of a mail backlog they have in the Copyright office and I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I pointed out two copies of what I assume is the latest Peter Benchley book. Something about sharks, of course. I think it might have been this book (I honestly don't remember the title I saw on the cart), which came out April 26, so maybe there is a bit of a backlog...
Anyway, we went right from the Copyright Office tour to the grande dame of tours at the LOC - a tour of the stacks. Oh yeah, that's right. I saw the stacks at the Library of Congress. On Tuesday morning, we were given these yellow passes to put with our ID's and no one was quite sure what they would do for us… as it turns out, they are stack passes for the General Collection. We lowly interns can go into the stacks ANY time we want and retrieve ANY books we want and CHECK OUT any books we want. Seriously, it's an amazing privilege. Out of the approximately 4500 employees at the Library, only about 600 people are given the stack passes. None of our supervisors in the program even have that access. Why we have it is beyond me but I'll take it.
Yes, let's be honest. The stacks are pretty boring. They are nothing spectacular. Personally, they reminded me exactly of the stacks I've seen since I was a little kid at the Cleveland Public Library. And, with something like 34 million books (something like that…), it's not like we are exactly going to be browsing the stacks. But, we could! I guess that is one of the most requested things from the public, though - can we see the stacks? So, I will always be one of the few people in the world who can say they have indeed seen the stacks of the world's largest library.
And the final event of the day was receiving our Metrochek cards. Those are the prepaid public transportation farecards - we can use on Metro rail and bus lines to commute to work. Yes, so we get to commute to work for free. Well, almost for free. I can commute for free, but for some people, the $105/month maximum that we can receive is simply not enough to cover the cost of commuting. That's a fantastic benefit to have - to not have to worry about the cost of commuting. Basically, I can rely on public transportation and not have to drive my car at all, if I wanted.
All in all, a good day.
Anyway, after the Copyright information session (seriously, I'm not kidding, I found this fascinating), we got a tour of the Copyright Office, which basically meant a tour of their immense card catalog. They have cards for every item ever given a copyright, since 1890 (I think that was the year…). Things from 1978 onward are available electronically but the previous 100 years are only found in these card catalogs. On the tour, we also got to walk through the mailroom, I guess you'd call it. Book cart after book cart held two copies of every recent book seeking a Copyright. Some of my fellow interns were looking for the latest Harry Potter book but we didn't see it. They figured it was too early for the Copyright Office to have it, but I honestly doubt it. I worked in a book store and I know how early we would get street-dated stuff… I'm sure it was already sent in for a Copyright, although it does depend on how much of a mail backlog they have in the Copyright office and I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I pointed out two copies of what I assume is the latest Peter Benchley book. Something about sharks, of course. I think it might have been this book (I honestly don't remember the title I saw on the cart), which came out April 26, so maybe there is a bit of a backlog...
Anyway, we went right from the Copyright Office tour to the grande dame of tours at the LOC - a tour of the stacks. Oh yeah, that's right. I saw the stacks at the Library of Congress. On Tuesday morning, we were given these yellow passes to put with our ID's and no one was quite sure what they would do for us… as it turns out, they are stack passes for the General Collection. We lowly interns can go into the stacks ANY time we want and retrieve ANY books we want and CHECK OUT any books we want. Seriously, it's an amazing privilege. Out of the approximately 4500 employees at the Library, only about 600 people are given the stack passes. None of our supervisors in the program even have that access. Why we have it is beyond me but I'll take it.
Yes, let's be honest. The stacks are pretty boring. They are nothing spectacular. Personally, they reminded me exactly of the stacks I've seen since I was a little kid at the Cleveland Public Library. And, with something like 34 million books (something like that…), it's not like we are exactly going to be browsing the stacks. But, we could! I guess that is one of the most requested things from the public, though - can we see the stacks? So, I will always be one of the few people in the world who can say they have indeed seen the stacks of the world's largest library.
And the final event of the day was receiving our Metrochek cards. Those are the prepaid public transportation farecards - we can use on Metro rail and bus lines to commute to work. Yes, so we get to commute to work for free. Well, almost for free. I can commute for free, but for some people, the $105/month maximum that we can receive is simply not enough to cover the cost of commuting. That's a fantastic benefit to have - to not have to worry about the cost of commuting. Basically, I can rely on public transportation and not have to drive my car at all, if I wanted.
All in all, a good day.
posted by Cheri W. | 8:12 PM
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