Library of Congress

Digital Reference Section

Intern: Rui Wang

Code: LOC-01

The Digital Reference Section (DRS) of multidisciplinary reference specialists responds to reference questions about the Library's online resources. A variety of projects are available with the Digital Reference Section ranging from updating narratives and compiling internal links for historical features of the Library's Web site to providing e-reference assistance. At present the section is creating a series of Web guides for each of the US presidents and a similar series for all the states and territories. The DRS supervisor will match current team needs with student interests and skills to develop appropriate projects.

Completed basic reference coursework advanced course preferred but not required. Strong search skills and must be familiar with basic and specialized electronic resources. Familiarity with Library of Congress Web site desired. Strong writing skills and some knowledge of writing for the Web.

Everyday Mystery -and- BERA guide

Interns: Rachel Lwin, Rachel Doepker

Code: LOC-02

In the Science Reference Section research a science-related topic for the Division's popular Everyday Mysteries web series (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/). The series explains life's mysteries drawing from the Library's general collections in science and technology subscription databases and the Web. To illustrate the topic the student would use the Prints and Photographs collection or scan images from the Library's public domain science material. In the Business Reference Section work on a new web page series: This Month in Business History (http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/businesshistory/). The student would work with a business reference librarian and the web master to create additional content for the series. Activities would include researching one or more topics to identify materials in the Library's collections online databases and the Web; creating an annotated bibliography of print and online resources (along with pertinent LC Subject Headings) for further reading; and collecting image(s) to illustrate the topic.

Veterans History Project - Born Digital Materials Submission Research Project

Intern: Alison Trulock

Code: LOC-03

The student will research and analyze the various challenges and potential benefits of the Veterans History Project's future acceptance of Web 2.0 born digital materials reflecting the contemporary conflict's correspondence. This work will begin with a survey of the Library's current practices the Project's current submission standards and relevant external institution's digital material harvesting practices and will culminate in a draft report. Twenty percent of the student's time will also be spent conducting key-word logging for existing collections which will enhance research access to the Project's collection and familiarize the intern with the Project's goals and scope. A representative sample of these collections can be found at http://www.loc.gov/vets

Qualification: Student(s) should be familiar with and interested in digital content management archives and archival standards and have good written and verbal communication skills. An interest or background in current military conflicts and history would be a plus.

Collection Development and Finding Aid -and- Automation and Access to Collections

Intern: Jennifer Trusty

Code: LOC-04

Collection Development and Finding Aid: Check the State legislative materials in the J-JKs in Adams to document which years are in the Library of Congress collections. Many of the State materials are quite spotty. These materials are for the most part not duplicated in Law Library's collections. The person would work with the political science or American history specialist in the Main Reading Room. Automation and Access to Collections: Organize the online Guide to Microform Collections into a single fully searchable site. It is now only an index which requires further searching to find the citation to the guide. Intern would work with the Division automation specialist and other librarians. http://www.loc.gov/rr/microform/guide/

Organizing captions of rare newspaper items

Intern: Cheney Schopieray

Code: LOC-05

The student will work with newspaper specialist to compile a database of frequently exhibited rare newspaper items. This assignment will require an examination of rare newspaper items organizing exhibit captions and reviewing digital images.

Qualification: The student will work with newspaper specialist to compile a database of frequently exhibited rare newspaper items. This assignment will require an examination of rare newspaper items organizing exhibit captions and reviewing digital images.

Creating historic web articles in Chronicling America

Intern: Christiane Evaskis

Code: LOC-08

The student will work with staff of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) to create brief "web articles" or "thematic presentations" that would highlight content from Chronicling America. Possible topics could include the Spanish-American War Assassination of President McKinley technology at the turn-of-the-century etc.

Qualification: Student must have the ability to use Microsoft Office software ability to write and familiarity with important events in American History.

Digital Preservation Programs

Interns: Dawn Barton, Sally Vermaaten

Code: LOC-09

The mission of the Library of Congress digital preservation program is to develop a national strategy to collect archive and preserve digital content especially materials that are created only in digital formats for current and future generations. Program Interns will: - Assist the Web Capture team in preserving Web sites - Research and survey international preservation efforts and programs - Develop news articles and other written content for http://www.digtialpreservation.gov - Create informational videos about digital preservation - Make recommendations about updating sections of http://www.digitalpreservation.gov to appeal to specific audiences - Update Program Bibliography Interns will also have the opportunity to sit in on meetings and become involved in the day to day operations of the program.

Qualification: Interest in Digital Preservation -Interest in Web communication.

Digital Resources Collection

Intern: Emily Sanford

Code: LOC-10

The project will consist of an intern working with a cartographic materials cataloger on the Digital Resources Collection. The intern will utilize the Z-Processor to search the backlog collection of electronic resources for MARC bibliographic copy records to import into Voyager for copy cataloging. This will enable the backlog collection of digital resources assessable security controlled and inventoried managed. The intern will remove and discard all duplicate copies. The intern will also keep statistical data on the project. The University of Michigan student will acquire an understanding of MARC formats (bibliographic and holdings) and will increase their knowledge and experience with metadata and the cataloging of cartographic materials. He/she will gain a rich educational experience by exposure to many of the treasures within our digital resources collection.

Qualification: Some cataloging skills (but not necessary).

Digital Image Processing

Intern: Lori Donovan

Code: LOC-11

We are converting late 19th and early 20th century county atlases to digital with the assistance of the Binding Office. These items will provide full coverage of some really great historical materials post Civil War to the 1920s in the US with county maps and individual township maps with landowners size of holdings etc. and images of the period appearing. Work on this effort exposes the intern to the scanning program and the work of making more broadly available research materials of great interest to the public and the research community. Project will use Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Access; no previous experience is required.

Tagging the National Photo Co.

Interns: David Quick, Beth Noyes

Code: LOC-13

The student(s) would learn to assign subject headings to news photographs in the National Photo Co. Collection. The images feature portraits of presidents and celebrities along with scenes of social life primarily in Washington DC between 1909 and 1932. You can see the photos online at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/npcohtml/npcoabt.html Here's a sample catalog record that needs subject indexing or tagging http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.27054

Web site redesign and enhancement

Code: LOC-06

Assistance in preparing for the redesign of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) web site. It is expected that the PCC web site http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/ will be redesigned under the guidance of the Library's Office of Strategic Initiatives in 2009. The Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division would like help planning a user-centric organizational structure appropriate categories for various levels of the web site and a consistent format for navigating the web pages.

Qualification: Knowledge of web page design.

Enhancement of eLearning and Web 2.0 Services

Code: LOC-07

Review and refine the website of the Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division for currency usability and effectiveness of presentation. Possible tasks: evaluate and select freely-available tutorials for linking to webpage; assist in the development of classroom e-learning and blended instructional materials; develop plan for implementation of instructional Podcasts and other Web 2.0 approaches.

Portals to Southeast Asia

Code: LOC-12

The two-member Southeast Asian team bears responsibility for 65% of the 40 Portals to the World maintained by the Asian Division at the Library of Congress. A University of Michigan intern is requested to assist with this project. The entire project can be viewed at http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html The major duties and responsibilities are checking links on all pages of each country verifying that each link is active removing or modifying inactive links searching the Internet and selecting sites that seem to be appropriate for the portal for each country writing appropriate annotations and entering these into a spreadsheet. The Portals to the World contain select links providing in-depth authoritative information about the countries of the world. Particularly with regards to less frequently studied regions of the world the Portals maintain a high profile on the World Wide Web. Contributions to this project affect how Global Gateway and the Library of Congress' digitization projects are perceived. People working on this project acquire knowledge about web resources pertaining to all of Asia as well as practical skills in writing for the web and cataloging.

Qualification: Knowledge of information technology the Internet online databases Microsoft Excel and web design are desired but not required.