Excuse me a minute while I geek out over the Library of Congress' Junior Fellows Summer Internship program. My favorite library school moments all involve behind-the-scenes access to the Library of Congress, National Archives, and other collections in the Washington, D.C. area.
I was lucky enough to take a preservation class that met at the LC (as
we librarians like to call it) when I was in library school. We went where the public never does. That included the conservation lab
where I stood this far away (imagine me spreading my arms about 4 feet)
from the contents of Lincoln's pockets when he was shot.
There were also the days I spent in the National Archives (exploring papers relating to the World War II Japanese-American interment camps), and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (reading transcripts of interviews with Holocaust survivors), and the National Geographic television and video collection, where I spent an afternoon watching librarians catalog every aspect of every scene in the films (snow, caribou, sky, pine trees, aspen). Oh, yes, and the summer taking a photographic collections class in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (fun fact: that big elephant really stinks up the place in the summertime when the air conditioning goes out.)
So you'll understand why, for the past four Augusts, I've gone a bit green-eyed with envy when I read about the Library of Congress Junior Fellows internship. Junior Fellows spend the summer chin-deep in "unprocessed" (re: not cataloged, or organized) copyright submissions and gift collections, processing them and making cool discoveries. I like to think it's like Indiana Jones without the snakes, rats, and airplane propellers. At the end of every summer, the fellows present their collections and cool findings. Cool finds have included a patent medicine featured in a murder case, photos of the Romanoff family, and a first edition instrumental sheet music to Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag."
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, our resource linking librarian, was one of those Junior Fellows before coming to K-State Libraries. Some of her favorite items to process? An Allman Brother's Band live performance cd and sheet music to the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack. What? You thought the Library of Congress only had stodgy old stuff? Heck no. Although, honestly, the old stuff is wicked cool.
Even as this summer winds down, it isn't too early to start thinking about internships that let you get elbow deep in cool collections for next summer. Here are a few sites to monitor for opportunities (heavily weighted towards where I would want to intern):
Library of Congress internships
National Archives internships
National Geographic internships
National Security Archive internships
Newberry Library internships
NPR internships
Smithsonian internships
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum internships
Image credit: Abraham Lincoln, Pres't U.S. by Alexander Gardner. Made available on Flickr by the Library of Congress with no known copyright restrictions.
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