July 12
In the morning, we were invited to attend a "Goals Group" meeting with staff from SpecMat (the cataloging division where I work) and reference staff from the Music Division. SpecMat is in charge of cataloging all kinds of "special materials" including the CDs and sound recordings that I do (which are part of the MBRS division (Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound) but also books, scores and extra items that are about music in general so those items fall under the Music Division. Yeah, it's confusing. Anyway, once a month these meetings are held to discuss issues like backlogs and priorities. Apparently, a concerted effort has been made recently to have more discussion between Reference and Cataloging – realizing that these two groups can provide excellent feedback to the other. In other words, the catalogers can help the reference staff know how to find things in the catalog whereas the reference staff can help the catalogers know how to organize things in ways that seem clearer and easier for the end user. They have even implemented a “blended position” arrangement in which staff from the two departments go to the other department for 4 hours a week to see how the other half lives. I guess it’s a program that’s been working really well. The meeting was kind of interesting and I understood most of what was going on, despite the use of some acronyms. Acronyms are HUGE at the Library – at the government in general, I suppose.
Other than that, I did the regular CD processing for a few hours in the morning. I listened to a few musicians I’d never heard of: Emery (yuck), Sanctus Real (not bad – a cute guy in the band heightens my curiosity every time) and Paul Wright (I liked him). And, in the afternoon, I searched the Library catalog and the copyright databases for Gadfly Records releases, which I’ve found as a non-copyright complier.
Also, I talked to my supervisor Gene again and he told me that the Jr. Fellows leaders (that’s the internship program I’m in) are planning a press conference (!!) with reporters to interview us to find out all about the “treasures” we are finding. That is the ultimate goal of the project – to dig through forgotten copyright deposited materials to find hidden treasures. Mind you, this does not really apply to any of us in MBRS, where copyright protection has only been around since 1972. The 9 of us in MBRS are basically preparing the Library for its big move next year to a different site (just the MBRS collections are moving). Specifically, since we three in Recorded Sound are dealing with CDs, you know, anything we might find is at most 20 years old. Not a lot of "hidden" treasures there, I assume. Eventually we are going to be looking through the unpublished works, I guess. Or so Gene keeps promising us. He told me that they found all this stuff that Tori Amos deposited from the time she was a little kid that was declared unpublished. None of the unpublished stuff goes into the Library catalog unless it is specifically requested. I guess one of the big holdups is figuring out how to best search the various Copyright catalogs. Unless you know specifically what to look for, it's difficult to find stuff. For instance, they found the Tori Amos stuff only because they had what basically amounted to her stalker working here. He was just being curious. I guess there is a lot of information there and it is hard to search. I suggested we road trip to Landover where the materials are stored and just browse. Gene kind of laughed; but I wasn’t kidding. Field trips kick ass at any age.
On my way home, I chatted it up on the Metro with a fellow Fellow, Meghan. She complained about how boring the job is and how they don’t utilize her full skills set so it makes her want to just search the Internet and post on her Livejournal all day. I know what she means but this is, after all, an internship. We are only here for ten weeks so the fact that we are doing busy work is kind of to be expected, isn’t it? Also, we talked about how the gloss has worn off and that we’ve realized that the Library of Congress doesn’t necessarily belong on a pedestal and is just like any other workplace. Just a wee bit cynical, eh?
Oh yeah, and because he said he’s read this, Happy Birthday to Curtis :).
Other than that, I did the regular CD processing for a few hours in the morning. I listened to a few musicians I’d never heard of: Emery (yuck), Sanctus Real (not bad – a cute guy in the band heightens my curiosity every time) and Paul Wright (I liked him). And, in the afternoon, I searched the Library catalog and the copyright databases for Gadfly Records releases, which I’ve found as a non-copyright complier.
Also, I talked to my supervisor Gene again and he told me that the Jr. Fellows leaders (that’s the internship program I’m in) are planning a press conference (!!) with reporters to interview us to find out all about the “treasures” we are finding. That is the ultimate goal of the project – to dig through forgotten copyright deposited materials to find hidden treasures. Mind you, this does not really apply to any of us in MBRS, where copyright protection has only been around since 1972. The 9 of us in MBRS are basically preparing the Library for its big move next year to a different site (just the MBRS collections are moving). Specifically, since we three in Recorded Sound are dealing with CDs, you know, anything we might find is at most 20 years old. Not a lot of "hidden" treasures there, I assume. Eventually we are going to be looking through the unpublished works, I guess. Or so Gene keeps promising us. He told me that they found all this stuff that Tori Amos deposited from the time she was a little kid that was declared unpublished. None of the unpublished stuff goes into the Library catalog unless it is specifically requested. I guess one of the big holdups is figuring out how to best search the various Copyright catalogs. Unless you know specifically what to look for, it's difficult to find stuff. For instance, they found the Tori Amos stuff only because they had what basically amounted to her stalker working here. He was just being curious. I guess there is a lot of information there and it is hard to search. I suggested we road trip to Landover where the materials are stored and just browse. Gene kind of laughed; but I wasn’t kidding. Field trips kick ass at any age.
On my way home, I chatted it up on the Metro with a fellow Fellow, Meghan. She complained about how boring the job is and how they don’t utilize her full skills set so it makes her want to just search the Internet and post on her Livejournal all day. I know what she means but this is, after all, an internship. We are only here for ten weeks so the fact that we are doing busy work is kind of to be expected, isn’t it? Also, we talked about how the gloss has worn off and that we’ve realized that the Library of Congress doesn’t necessarily belong on a pedestal and is just like any other workplace. Just a wee bit cynical, eh?
Oh yeah, and because he said he’s read this, Happy Birthday to Curtis :).
posted by Cheri W. | 11:11 PM
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