June 24

Today wrapped up my third full week at the Library and it was same old, same old. Processing of new CDs continued this morning, but we still have not learned how to make "brief records" so that is one highly important element of the processing that we cannot do. Basically, from my understanding, we have to make the "brief records" when the CDs are found neither in the Library's Voyager database or the OCLC database. However, my co-worker/fellow intern Ali told me this is not the case, that we have to make the "brief records" when the CDs are not in Voyager but ARE in OCLC. We'll see. My way makes more sense to my library mind, but let's not forget that my trainer doesn't speak English very well so it wouldn't be out of the question for me to have misunderstood - or for her to be wrong. After all, she insisted that it was not "OCLC" but rather "LCOC" when I was labeling my box. Uh huh, sure it is.

Anyway, the new CDs are a mixed bag of all types of music (a lot of contemporary Christian and Latin instrumental, though) and I've been spending more time listening to ones that look interesting. For instance, I came across sort of a "greatest hits" CD by Roscoe Holcomb, who was the original singer of "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow." Most people (including me) know that song from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. I also listened to the Ryan Cabrera CD (I will admit that I love that song "True" by him) and the official Athens 2004 Olympic album, where Avril Lavigne does a horrible cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." However, I was most excited to come across a CD by Anne E. DeChant, who is a local singer from Cleveland who I have heard in person a few times. It's cool to add someone like that to the Library's collection!

The Junior Fellows Intern Web page was unveiled finally - only to Library staff members, though, so I'm sorry I can't show you guys. Each of us interns (except my co-worker Thom, for some reason) gets our own page, complete with picture and information about us. I'm just happy that my picture is not that horrible. I'm not smiling, but it's not that bad either. I was one of the bad interns who didn't submit any information about myself, too. So there's just my picture, my name and a lot of "information not submitted..."

We also had an Intern-only bagged lunch get-together, which was a little weird. Only about 8 of us showed up, which I guess is nearly half, but the tables in the dining room were set up in a U-shape so it wasn't particularly conducive to conversation - except with the people right next to you. Our main conduit to the administration, Raymond, set that up and from what I could tell (I got there late), didn't even eat with us but instead stood over all of us and asked us if we were bored at our jobs yet. Very, very interesting, to say the least.

June 23

Today, we got assigned a new cataloging project. Go figure. Instead of continuing to process "retro" CDs like we'd been doing, we were told to process new ones now. So far, it's not much different - still involves pulling up their MARC record and applying stickers and barcodes when necessary. There is an added component, however - if we can't find the CD listed in our Library's Voyager catalog, we turn to the OCLC database and check there. That's new - access to the OCLC catalog. Of course, if the CD record IS in OCLC, we can't do anything with it. Don't think we are allowed to willy-nilly copy-catalog items from OCLC into our records. Ha! We, do, however, have to make 'brief records' if the items are not in Voyager or OCLC. Not that we've learned what doing a "brief record" exactly entails yet. Tomorrow, I guess.

Other than that, we had a MBRS/SpecMat Team 3 meeting. Meetings, meetings. You know you are working at a real job when there are meetings every single day. Everyone from MBRS was there - including the Motion Picture people and, via telephone, the motion picture archives in Dayton. Most of the discussion was about the Culpepper, VA, facility, which is scheduled to open in a little over a year. Pretty much the entire MBRS team, including the catalogers that we work with in SpecMat in the mornings, are expected to move to Culpepper when this facility opens. Some are understandably less-than-thrilled about having to relocate about an hour away. If a person doesn't want to move, efforts are being made to reassign them, though. It seems like most people I've talked to don't want to move.

Oh, the last thing that happened today was that I FINALLY got my loan ID so I can check out books!! Yay! Of course, the one book I was looking to read that was available for the last 3 weeks now suddenly has both copies checked out. Hmph. I think I might be able to find something else to check out among the Library's 24 million books or whatever it is.

June 22

A funny email that got sent around first thing this morning at work mentioned that something was lost or misplaced from storage - the video of the inauguration of George W. Bush. Heh. I wonder what happened to that! When we got all this paperwork to fill out in the beginning of our time at the Library, one of the things we had to sign was an agreement to not make a strike against the government. I'm assuming that all employees have to sign something like that - I wonder if stealing a videotape of the inauguration is akin to making a strike against the government. Probably not.

In the morning, more CD processing. I listened YET again to The Wonder Years soundtrack. I'm loving that. I especially enjoy The Indigo Girls singing "Get Together" and Julian Lennon singing "Ruby Tuesday." I had "Ruby Tuesday" in my head all day - in fact, when I was looking for a place to eat dinner and saw a Ruby Tuesday restaurant, I thought perhaps it was kismet. But I didn’t go there…

Anyway, The Wonder Years soundtrack is tons better than listening to bands like Skid Row, Tuff, Tattoo Rodeo and Mike & the Mechanics. I swear today was the fourth Mike & the Mechanics CD I have processed in the last ten days… who knew they were so prolific? I also came across what HAD to be Marc Anthony's very first CD. In fact, it's actually "Little" Louie Vega performing, with singing by Marc Anthony. It was from 1991, I think, so Marc had to be like 20 years old or something. I wonder if J.Lo has heard that…

In the afternoon, I spent the whole time looking in the copyright database. Also, one of the reference librarians showed me how to get to the post office in one of the House Office Buildings, which are accessible via tunnels. Don't think I won't go back there! It's such a different atmosphere in the basement of the House Buildings compared to the basement of the Library buildings.

On my way home from seeing Bewitched!, I experienced my first bus ride in DC. It was fine and I managed okay - got on the right bus and everything. Phew. The scariest man ever got on the bus right before we took off, though, and sat right across the aisle from me. Everyone eyed him and was clearly thinking the same thing I was... "please don't kill me." I'm not kidding - everyone breathed easier when he got off the bus. He was filthy, smelled icky, had what looked like blood stains on his pants, had (unlit) cigarettes behind both ears, was wearing an El Salvador mesh basketball-like jersey which he proceeded to take off and then put back on like a shrug... but the topper was his Syracuse baseball cap. Yep, so proud. So, so proud. Go Orange!

June 21

Today seemed like a short day at work, only because I didn't do a whole lot of sitting at my desk. In the morning, one of the real catalogers in SpecMat, Mary Wedgewood, showed us some of the stuff she is working on. She explained how they copy-catalog items from OCLC or RLIN when it would take a ridiculous amount of time to do original cataloging. Makes sense. Why waste the time on things that other sources can catalog well when there are so many unique items that come directly - and only - to the Library of Congress? Anyway, Mary also showed us an honest to goodness CIP (Cataloging in Publication), which is what you see on the title page (copyright page?) of just about every book - the part with the LC and Dewey call numbers, as well as the title and author, ISBN, etc… You guys know what I mean... The Library receives book info pre-publication so that call numbers and subject headings, etc… can be determined and included when the book is published. Pretty cool. The CIPs are considered HIGH priority and staff takes turns doing them.

Mary also got us invited to a cataloging "strategic plans" meeting - they are trying to shake things up in the cataloging world, apparently. They've been meeting for a few months and are trying to think of new ways "to develop the catalog to meet actual user needs," as our supervisor Joe explained. Overall, the discussion was if and how to make the catalog more participatory. There was also much discussion about combining copyright registration directly with the Library catalog - why not use the information provided by those registering for a copyright as introductory cataloging information. Anyway, everything is still in the preliminary stages, but it was interesting to attend a meeting like that and hear what is on the minds of the brains at the Library. It was generous of them to allow us to come and listen. That was Thom & Mary's doing.

Besides those extras, I processed more CDs in the morning. I found The Wonder Years soundtrack yesterday and listened to it all day yesterday and today. That soundtrack is awesome. I really like it. It's got some good covers on it. Who knew? Then, I came across a CD by King Missile, a band I swear I enjoyed in my younger years, but boy, did my tastes change. Oh well. They amused me slightly, but for the most part, I fast-forwarded to the next song. We are STILL processing Atlantic Records CDs from the early 1990s. I think we'll be doing those for the rest of our time here, I swear. Ali & I went down to the basement to retrieve more CDs and the Atlantic pile seems to never end.

In the afternoon, I did my reference work. After the "strategic plans" meeting, there really wasn't a whole lot of afternoon left, though, and I spent most of my time trying to figure out the ins and outs of MS Access. I've never used it before. Fun. I've found about 8 record labels that I'm writing up for not sending in their copyright deposits.

Finally, I found out it is a faux pas to refer to the Library as LOC - it should be LC. Oops. But, I refuse to comply. I like LOC much better and heck, their Web site is LOC. Maybe if they were paying me more money, I would feel more like complying :)!

June 20

Back to the grind. My sleeping patterns are all off, thanks to my weekend back in Syracuse. Hmm… what is it about the Syracuse air that makes me stay up until 4am or 5am so frequently when I'm there? Anyway, back in DC I have to get up by 7am so I struggled to stay awake all day. Nothing too exciting happened today, though -- CD processing in the morning and record label researching in the afternoon. We do a lot of musical chairs in the afternoon, as we don't have legitimate workspaces and work on one computer until we are kicked off for various reasons and then move to another. Good times, for sure.

More good times were had at the Emergency Preparedness meeting we attended this morning. This was interesting, I guess. We learned where to evacuate in the case of a non-fire emergency. Well, most staffmembers already knew where to go and, in fact, went to the evacuation spot recently - when that plane was aimlessly flying around by the Capitol last month. Yep, fun. I'm sure few people can claim to have a legitimate evacuation spot for their jobs. Interestingly enough, our "evacuation" spot - which is top secret so I will not tell ANYONE!! (well, I can perhaps be bribed…) - is at a location outside - as in the WIDE OPEN - which makes me feel less than safe. If a plane is insanely flying around or, say, heading for the Capitol building to smash into it, do I want to be wandering aimlessly outside? I think not. Apparently, the evacuation plan is less than stellar, as we spent about 45 minutes hearing complaints from staffmembers who had problems during the last evacuation. There was talk about a trial run in the next couple of months, too. Let's hope I get to experience that… not.

Oh, and totally unrelated to Library news, but I got my AOL free trial set up on my computer at the place I'm staying. Sure, those disks are annoying, but sometimes they fit the bill. Praise Allah for unlimited Internet access at home again. It's a difficult thing for me to live without. I also won a free pass to see a sneak preview of Bewitched! Yay! I'm psyched. Will Ferrell? Say no more, I'm there. As some of you know, that's just like old times for me - not Will Ferrell (heh), but free sneak preview movies. Yep, I've spent many a night at those.

June 18 & 19

Since I spent the weekend in Syracuse, I don't think I'm technically supposed to include it in a diary about my internship in DC so suffice it to say that it was nice to be home, to see my friends, to sleep in my own bed, to have to share a bathroom with only one other person, to get some much needed supplies (like towels and sweaters), to be in familiar surroundings, to have a freezer that isn't overrun with alcohol (not that I have a problem with alcohol - I just think it's an odd thing to have in your freezer when you have an 11-year-old in the house) and just in general to be in a place where I know where things are! No joke but it felt like I hadn't been in Syracuse in about 4 months, when it was only two weeks. Who knew I had grown to love Syracuse so much that I missed it? I think it's more that I missed the people, though.

Better yet, I made it back to DC in about 5 hours and 40 minutes by going another route. And I'm pretty sure I can improve on that if given the chance. By the time I hit the DC area, it was dark out and I couldn't really consult my trusty maps for the best route. Seriously, if this librarian career doesn't work out I'm going to apply for a job at AAA mapping out routes because I have quite a skill.