Summer Internship

 

~Outside and inside views of the Library of Congress, Jefferson Building~

A few weeks ago, I started my summer internship at the Library of Congress. For the next few months I’ll be in the Foreign Newspaper division, working with French language papers from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I was a little nervous on the first day; walking into the Library of Congress is a little intimidating! But I found the correct reading room without any trouble, and when I met my supervisor she was friendly and welcoming. I jumped right in the first day, and even discovered a newspaper from 1802—the oldest one I’ve found so far!

~Close up of the 1802 paper I found~

~Feeling welcome my first day on my supervisor's 'to do' list~

I started out working with European newspapers, mostly from Belgium and France. I then moved on to Francophone Africa, spending much of this past week organizing periodicals from Benin. I know very little about French Africa beyond the northernmost countries and so I’m learning a lot from perusing the African newspaper collection!

  

~Inside the newspaper storage room~

Working at the Library of Congress provides a lot of opportunities in addition to the actual work of my internship.  For instance, the library offers an extensive lecture and workshop series, and I’ve already been able to attend one of these events (see a later post to hear more about this!).  I also had the opportunity to sit down with the other interns in the newspaper division and meet with Deborah Thomas, the coordinator for the library’s Chronicling America project.  Chronicling America involves the digitization of newspapers from all over the country, which are then made available online.  She walked us through the Chronicling America website, which includes features like “today in history” and a list of proposed topics to browse.

~Hallway in Library of Congress~

There are also a lot of benefits beyond the doors of the Library of Congress.  Though I’ve lived in the DC area for 22 years, I’ve spent virtually no time in Capitol Hill, and I’m fast discovering that it’s a great neighborhood. There are lots of things to do, see, and of course eat! I’m already smitten with a small French restaurant across the street from the Madison Building, Le Bon Café. If you go, I highly recommend the chicken breast panini.

~Lunch from Le Bon Cafe~

~View of the Capitol from outside the Library~