July 2 pictures

Here are some of the things we saw while sight-seeing today.

the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is the largest Catholic church in the country supposedly.



the Lincoln Memorial:




the Washington Monument:



and the Korean War Veterans Memorial:

July 1

Yay! It's the Friday before a long holiday weekend!

It was a good day. In the morning, I learned how to input my records into some sort of archaic tracking software - I have no idea why this is done; I just do what I'm told.

At lunch, I decided yet again to sit outside but I was kind of icked out by the rats scurrying about in the bushes. Yuck. Rats are gross. I'm not talking about the politicians from next door, either - these were genuine rats. Anyway, as I read, ate and tried to avoid the rats, my SpecMat supervisor came out to have a smoke and then sat down and we talked for a little bit. He was curious about what sorts of projects we did in the afternoon. I (for some reason) made it sound better than it is. He said he will arrange to have us observe a couple meetings next week, which I find interesting. It's interesting to see how things work behind-the-scenes and where the decisions are made. Also, he explained what I suspected - that we were switched from retro CD processing to new CD processing because they suddenly had such a large influx of new CDs and those are more important to process than CDs that have been sitting around for 15 years.

After lunch, I finished all my databases for the record labels I already found but I put off trying to find a new one. That can wait until next week. I also talked with my supervisor, Nancy, and got her career history. She knows the head librarian at one of the Smithsonian libraries so I think I'm going to go over there and meet him one day and see what kinds of things he does. Also, she thinks my other supervisor, Gene, knows someone at the Congressional Research Service, which is another organization at the library that totally interests me. I'd love to talk to someone from there.

Beyond that, Marci arrives today and we have big sightseeing plans for the whole weekend. I'm most excited about our potential plans to go to an Orioles game, our plans to go to the Smithsonian and, of course, the definite plans to see the big fireworks and concert on The Mall on the 4th. You, too, can watch it all on PBS and look for me!

June 30

Ah, the last day of June already!

Work is more of the same. However, one of the really nice catalogers in our office in the morning showed Thom (a fellow intern) & I some of the intracacies of our cataloging system, mainly how to pull up the work we've done and to check its progress. Actually, anyone can check it through the Library's online catalog. It is kind of cool to know that anyone can see the stuff I've processed here!

Directions: Pull up the Library catalog and do a keyword search for either vn82 or vn53. All the cataloging work I've done is pulled up! The vn82 and vn53 are my identification numbers and they are in the MARC records so therefore searchable in the catalog. That never occurred to me before! It's pretty obvious by the dates of the CDs which ones are part of the "Retro" project and which are the "new" CDs. But, also, because they changed my number, most of the ones under vn82 are retros and most of the ones under vn53 are new. So, the new ones are the ones where I might have created the brief record. Unfortunately, there's no way to know what exactly I inputted in a given record - unless you ask me! And like I'm going to remember... But, it does show the kinds of CDs I've been coming into contact with.

Mary, the cool aforementioned cataloger, also sent me the "Cataloger's Desktop," which is full of cataloging resources and links. I am going to slowly investigate that during my time at the Library. There is a 4-6 hour tutorial that I plan to take. After I get through all that info, I'll know exactly where to go for all things cataloging.

Umm, in the afternoon, I slacked off. Yeah, I admit it. Well, I am so sick of inputting album titles and album numbers into Access. Ugh. It's more fun to figure out things to do with Marci this weekend. Also, I spent a while talking to one of the reference librarians/archivists that I work with. She told me all about her previous job with the Architect of the Capitol as their archivist. She got to see old blueprints, etc... from when the buildings in the area were being built. Then, I also got stuck in this uncomfortable conversation with this unfortunate cataloger who has been recently dumped by his newly green-carded wife and is now being sued for support, etc... That's not even the half of it - let's just say it was too much information. He knows someone at Syracuse, at the Belfer Audio Lab. I guess he used to work with her. Anyway, getting to know the staff and their career paths is an important part of an intern's job, right?

Oh, finally, there was another stray plane and an evacuation yesterday. It happened close to 7pm so I was nowhere near the Library or the Capitol (we have to be gone by 6pm, for some reason). People were ordered to leave the building and were not allowed back in for about a half hour. High drama. It's too bad I missed it, especially considering I now know where to go in the case of an evacuation.

June 29

I feel like I have absolutely nothing new to report today... except that I was fairly certain that it was Thursday for most of the day when, no, it's only Wednesday. Perhaps I'm too anxious for the weekend to come because 1.) it's a long, holiday weekend and 2.) my friend Marci is coming to visit. Yay!!

This morning, more brief record-making. I decided to listen to some of the CDs I was processing, whether they sounded interesting or whether I had heard of them or not. As a result, I heard such musicians as Al Wells, Fastbacks, and Lara Michell. Who, you ask? Exactly.

At lunchtime, I decided to sit outside and read. I had a nice cozy spot between the Madison building (where I work) and the Cannon building (one of the House buildings). I also got to watch all the people in suits walk by!

In the afternoon, I continued inputting my record label data into MS Access. I've been working on Dionysus Records and its related labels all this week basically. They have a big catalog. But, I should finish it tomorrow and then it'll be time to find a new non-complying label, I suppose. I've cross-checked and inputted data for all 8 non-complying labels that I've found so far and it doesn't seem like we are getting a new reference project any time soon unfortunately. I won't lie - this project is boring the life out of me and I find it particularly hard to concentrate during the afternoons. Luckily for me, the "Internet searching" that is required for that project is something I've expanded to non-record label information.

June 28

In the morning, I FINALLY was taught how to make brief records. As with all things cataloging, it's been dumbed-down with a template and macros so it's really only a matter of filling in the template for each new CD. It's not that difficult, although there are a bunch of little things to look for and to try to remember each time. My flightiness makes remembering these tiny things somewhat challenging... although I am usually only flighty about things that effect only me! Anyway, we fill out the template and then "send" it to Voyager, the Library's catalog system, and then the CDs are accessible in the catalog. Every time someone looks something up in the Library's catalog, they first see the brief record screen, so what we are doing is kind of important, I guess. Overall, the new CD processing requires a lot more concentration and thought than the retro CD processing that we were doing initially. I can see where the quota of approximately 3 per hour (yes, I mentioned earlier that my trainer said it was 4 per hour but the other people in the office told me it's actually 3+ per hour) makes more sense. Still, I've been doing it for less than a day and I'm already at more than 3 per hour. Expectations are very low here.

In the afternoon, I worked more on making Access databases for the record labels I'm researching. I'm getting to be quite the pro with Microsoft Access and it makes me happy. Thom and Ali are using Excel because they know it better but I took the challenge and am learning Access! So aren't I cool? Umm, also, while I was working, I got to listen to recordings from some Joe Louis fight from 1939 or so. My "office" in the afternoon is actually the former Department Head's office (he retired in January) and all the dubbing equipment is in there. They needed to burn these Joe Louis fights onto a CD for some event about NBC radio later this week, so I listened to some of it while I worked. You wouldn't believe the non-stop advertising and corporate sponsorship that was around even in the 1930s! Oh, and that served to remind me that Recorded Sound isn't just music and CDs, like what I've been working with... it can also be old radio programs.

Oh, and as an example of my flightiness... I decided to go for a walk and enjoy the outdoors at lunchtime so I walked by the Supreme Court building. It's only on the other side of the Jefferson building and I have walked by it before, but only past the back, not the front. Well, I want to use up my roll of film and thought I'd take some nice pictures of the building and what was bound to be some weirdo protesters of some sort. Alas, no protesters today. As I found out later in the afternoon, the last day that the Court was in session was YESTERDAY! Duh. I missed it all by one stinking day.

June 27

Back to work. Our "brief record" template was finally triggered to work today so potentially we could have started to work on those, after two days of work backing up. However, I kind of avoided learning how to do it, as I'm not looking forward to interaction with my non-English-speaking trainer. I get so frustrated learning things from her that I prefer to put it off... She suggested we wait until after lunch so I was happy to oblige, considering that I go to the reference department after lunch!

The other funny thing is that one of the record labels I've been researching for copyright compliance is this label called Secretly Canadian. I just liked the name. Well, one of the CDs from that label was in my pile to process today. Kind of ironic.

Lastly, after a small scare that we might not be getting paid at all because we weren't properly filing our "T&A" paperwork (Yes, an unfortunate abbreviation for something the Library refers to as Time & Attendance), I found out my first paycheck was direct deposited after all. Yay! It's good to know I'm not doing this all for free!

June 25 & 26

Another weekend - this one is purportedly "special" because it's my birthday weekend, but it's hard to enjoy a birthday when I'm in a city where I know no one. Anyway, I went to a Nationals game Saturday night and that was pretty fun! I got a free hat AND the team won. Not that I was particularly rooting for the Nationals. On any other night I probably would have rooted for them but it's really hard for me to root for Livan Hernandez. Plus, I'm an AL gal.

Oh yeah, and I should add that the food was by far the worst I've seen at any stadium/arena/ballpark ever. There weren't that many options (this is 2005, after all so I expect some fancy food) and it was so overpriced. I got a "Super" Dog, which I expected to be like a footlong or something special in some way - nope, just a regular hot dog. For $4. Also, I splurged on Red Hook draft beer, which sold for $6.50. That's crazy expensive, but, compared to the Miller and Bud offerings at $6.00 each, I thought it seemed reasonable. $6.00 for a Miller Lite? No way.

On Sunday, I checked out the Fairfax area - went to the Fair Oaks mall and the nearby Wegmans, which is UNbelievable. It is the nicest Wegmans I've been to! I was just happy to go to a grocery store that didn't require me to sign up for a new card.