July 15

Just as I suspected, I spent all morning fixing my brief records after Gina (trainer #2) went through them. My primary mistakes were with the 511 field, which is the ‘Participant or Performer Note.’ I was told by Tran (trainer #1) to get the information off of the CD first and foremost. If there is no artist/performer information there, then go to the back of the CD case. The last resort was to read the inserted booklet. So, many times, I never even opened the little booklet that comes with the CDs since most of you know that the CD usually lists the artist's name. HOWEVER, according to Gina, I should be examining all the information provided in the booklet. I had to add all this extra information like band member names, instruments played, additional and accompanying musicians. Yeah, it kind of sucks. It really did take me about the four hours to go back through all of the 50 brief records that Gina had looked at and to correct my mistakes. I also have to add diacritics to all the Spanish-language stuff. Adding diacritics is a total pain in the ass.

At lunchtime, I went out to eat with Ali, a fellow Recorded Sound Fellow, and she told me a secret: that next week is her last week. She’s known from the beginning that she was only going to be working for 7 weeks because of a big trip to South Africa planned with her family. No one knows – well, except for me now and also for close family friend Dr. James Billington. Yes, that is the same Dr. Billington who is Librarian of Congress. So… I guess that officially answered my question as to how Ali got selected for the program. I had already known that her father had raised some hell, pulled some strings, etc… but I just hadn’t realized the extent to which he had connections. Apparently, Ali’s Dad and Dr. Billington are in the same “men’s club.” I didn’t even ask what that entailed. Anyway, getting over the general bitterness I have for people of privilege, I am actually pretty jealous that she’s leaving. I kind of feel like I’ve gotten all I can out of this experience in the six weeks I’ve been here and wish I could just get out.

In the afternoon, I worked on creating a database from the catalog of non-compliant Estrus Records. At the end of the day, we got an email inviting us to a party for the 135th anniversary of the Copyright Office’s infusion with the Library (woo hoo!) and also for our halfway point. It’s a joint party for those two reasons. Whatever. Like I’m going to complain about a party – regardless of the lame reason they are having it! I hope there is cake because I’ve been totally craving cake ever since I didn’t have any on my birthday.

Oh, which reminds me, Happy Birthday to Brian!