In the news

So, I was lucky enough to appear in two issues of the Gazette, the LOC newsletter. It was kinda weird being stopped in the hall by Library employees saying "Hey, you're the one on the front of the Gazette." I'm not used to that kind of attention :)

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to upload the whole newsletter :(

Hot Wheels and paint

Had a group of day campers in the YRC who had been leaning about transportation throughout history. We read a few stories with transportation themes. I read a selection from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The part about the other schools arriving in the giant carriage and ship. Then we had crafts. I had convinced my supervisor to do two activities and let the kids choose, one which she had found including paint. I was so excited! This was such a fun project! We dipped hot wheels cars in paint, then drove them over the paper, the tracks creating an abstract art piece. IT was awesome! A word of warning: if you ever do this activity, don't use any cars that are the ones that go automatically when you rev them up by rolling them back. We learned that the hard way when one kid loaded his car wheels with paint, picked it up, and the wheels quickly spun a lovely green splatter pattern all over the table and the girl standing next to him :)

The other activity was making flying saucers out of paper plates. Then they had to get them to fly to the landing pad. We had a blast and all went well (except the splatter incident of course). Then we had to spend forever cleaning up, and before I knew it the day was over. We were exhausted!Did not get any of the work done I had planned on. Oh well.

DC fun again

- FHE dinner groups at Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill. Great burgers and owned by Spike, a Top Chef competitor
- Navy Band concert at Navy memorial - Bluegrass group called Country Currents. I think bluegrass is the most fun type of music
- National Portrait Gallery and American Art museum
- ate at Nando Peri Peri - (brother-in-law would be jealous!) bummed because they didn't have the delicious spicy chocolate ice cream I still remember from a few years ago
- ran into the gigantic crowd there to see the Dalai Lama while trying to get Josh Groban tickets
- Had picture taken with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at her constituent coffee- thought I would actually get to talk to her, but only got to say where I was from, snap the picture and move on. Oh well, it was great to see the Texas flag again!
- Harry Potter!!!! Went with a group to see the double feature midnight showing of Deathly Hallows pt. 1 & 2 - We dressed up, I was Hermione. But, we went to a theater in Maryland where apparently no one dresses up, so we attracted a lot of attention, especially my 6'8" friend dressed as Hagrid.
- Tour of the Capitol and Capitol Visitor Center
- Tour of the White House - amazing!!! The rooms are much smaller than you think. I loved all the bold colors and furnishings and decor dripping with history. Only saw the first 2 floors of the East wing, but impressed by the Stately elegance, though humbleness of the President's home. The gardens are spectacular!
- Ate at historic Old Ebbit's Grill, oldest restaurant in DC. Should have ordered the crab cakes. Super blackberry pie.
- Walked Lafayette Park - Marquis de Lafayette was such a fascinating and wonderfully patriotic person. He doesn't get enough attention in American history. I'm glad I read the book about him for my children's lit class last semester!
- Visited the Renwick Gallery - crafty part of American Art museum. Saw the most amazing bureau which included a replica of the Library of Congress main reading room and lots of hidden drawers. I wish I was rich so I could buy that piece! Also saw a piece called the Ghost Clock which appeared to be a grandfather clock covered by a large canvas cloth, but the whole thing was actually carved out of a solid piece of mahogany. Even looking really close, its nearly impossible to tell it is not fabric but wood.

Coolest shoes ever!!!!

These are the most amazing heels in the world! They're from Anthropologie and I will have to figure out how to afford them. The heels are book spines! AWESOME!

Running out of time!

A few interesting experiences at the LOC this week. Monday I had my meeting with IPO (interpretive programs office) to prepare my items for the Junior Fellow exhibit day display. These are the people who prepare exhibits and displays in the LOC. It was fascinating! They had shelves and shelves of pieces of all kinds of material. I just showed them a book and in about 10 seconds they grabbed pieces and a drill and had a perfectly sized display piece done. It's like they play with blocks and erector sets as their job. So cool! They were also all very entertained by one of the books I brought, What the Presidents are Made Of. A fun book which has little known facts about several of the presidents and what they like. Each president is illustrated by the artist using found objects, many relating to the facts. For example, George W Bush used to own part of the Texas Rangers, so they used a baseball, hot dog, mitt, etc. to create his picture. It's amazing how much they really look like them!

Finding more and more amazing picture books in the donation collection I'm working on. I'm worrying now if I'll be able to finish this project. Things keep getting added to take care which take me away from the project itself. I was asked by the outreach department to conduct a storytime with a group of zoo campers, since they said I did a good job at the Princess reading. I've also been asked to write an article about my experience at the YRC for the Center for the Book newsletter. Not to mention getting my media presentation ready for my display. All great things that are fun to work on, but eating into my rapidly shrinking time left. We'll see how it goes!

Getting Ready for Show and Tell

I spent a good bit of time this week planning my display table for the Junior Fellow exhibit day which will be at the end of the month. I decided to make the focus an educational and advocacy display for the YRC. So, I had to pick a few books to represent the whole program. I picked a few from the Roback donation I've been working on, one I read to the Princess, and two popular novels from our older reader collection. I'm also going to have a photo of me reading to the Princess and embassy kids, and a laptop with a video I'm going to create about the YRC. It was so hard to pick so few books to represent the program! Hopefully the ones I chose will show the scope of the YRC collection and pique the interest of the congressmen and others who will be there on exhibit day. I'm meeting with IPO, the preservation and exhibits department to work on the logistic of the display table. I also had to submit the text for the labels which will be printed with the LOC logo for the items on display. Its exciting to be putting together an official display!

On Friday we were able to take a short tour of the conservation department, where they work on restoring and repairing materials in the LOC collection, mostly rare books and manuscripts. It was pretty interesting, but a little disappointing because all the staff was out to lunch and we didn't see anything in action. Oh well, maybe next time.

We also had a follow up meeting with Dr. Marcum earlier in the week. She spent an hour with us answering questions, mostly about the Twitter archives, future plans, and career advice. Its such a great opportunity to have people with so much insight and experience share their time and advice with us.

The week went by very fast! I was so busy with preparing my display and continuing inventory work, the four day week just flew by. I still can;t believe how little time I left here. I'm not ready to be finished yet!

DC fun cont.

I've been exhausted this week after the 4th, so took it somewhat easy :)

- concert at Wolf Trap, national park for the arts: National Symphony Orchestra, Tcheers for Tchaikovsky! - picnic on the lawn while listening to violin concerto, Nutcracker suite, and 1812 Overture...amazing!

- LDS Midsingles conference in DC:
      Fri - Luau;
      Sat. - Folklife Festival on the Mall (Columbia culture and Rhythm and BLues music, so fun!), catered lunch, Potomac river boat (The Cherry Blossom) cruise including Alexandria fireworks show;
      Sun - special sacrament meeting with stake president and area seventy, lunch and mingling, musical patriotic fireside

Independence Day the DC way

I spent the morning and afternoon at Mt. Vernon. What better place to be on the 4th than the home of the man who made the USA. We spent the 4th there when the family came a couple years ago, and I fell in love with Mt. Vernon. George Washington's relatives sure knew what they were doing when they created a home on that breathtaking spot. I could spend hours sitting on the back porch of the mansion enjoying the view.

I have always had great respect for our first president, which only deepens the more I learn of him. If I could choose to meet and speak with anyone form the past, he would be at the top of the list. One thing I greatly admire him for is the fact he was able to turn away from immense power when it was his for taking, and not only once. There are so few men, past or present, who could or would do what he did if they were in the same place. His standards, morals, and ideals were more important than himself.

After touring the mansion and watching a reenacted review of the troops, followed by the reading of the Declaration of Independence, came the highlight of my day. I followed a procession down to the tomb of the Washingtons, and witnessed a wreath laying ceremony by the Sons of the American Revolution. We were invited to individually lay a carnation at the tomb. It was a very moving experience for me in which I felt I was able to show my deep appreciation, respect, and admiration in a very small and simple way.

The rest of the Mt. Vernon visit consisted of music demonstrations and performances, a daytime colored smoke fireworks show on the back lawn overlooking the Potomac, relaxing and reflecting on the porch, and touring the museum and education center. One interesting and humorous exhibit was George Washington's dentures, which the exhibit displayed a timeline of his teeth. Also fascinating were the manequins of him throughout his life, which they've used very high tech technology to create and are considered to be as close to the real thing as it is possible to get.

After leaving, I headed to the city to meet up with friends at the Capitol 4th concert. I got there first and with the help of some very nice people (one who turned out to be from Austin) managed to get a great spot. We had a view of the stage and of the fireworks without having been there for 5 hours. Best part - Josh Groban performed 3 songs! He was amazing as usual. Also a highlight, though unexpected was Steve Martin (yes, the comedian) playing the banjo with his bluegrass band. The NSO played while the fireworks went off, and it was spectacular!

I had an amazing day celebrating our country of which I am so proud to be a citizen.
I am

Princess is now in the past - she came, she went, I survived

Well, of course the major highlight of this past week was the visit of Princess Mathilde of Belgium on Monday. It was quite the experience. So, the Thursday before, I was notified I'd be expected to entertain about 10-12 of the K-1 embassy kids about a half hour before the storytime. Of course, they didn't seem to know kids well, because they said I could just have them color or something. Ha! That would last 10 minutes at the most! Anyway, I planned all kinds of games and activities. Good thing, as they called about 9:45 the day of to say the kids were already there. I was planning on going to set up at 10 for them to be there at 10:15! So, we hurried down. They had the Whithall Pavilion all set up with chairs for story time and tables for coloring. They looked mortified when I came in with my cart full of games, balloons, toys, etc and began moving everything out of the way. So, the kids colored and played with magnetic blocks for a bit until I got games ready. Then we played the 2-sides getting to know you game, had a paper towel snowball fight, Simon says, and sitting balloon keep away. The trick was to guard the Rodin sculptures from our frolicking game play :) We had a ball.

When the older kids and parents got back from the tour of the LOC, we had cookies and lemonade. My YRC partner Joe and I were shocked to find out we were left to run the whole show, as all the people we thought were in charge left to follow the Princess around. We had to figure out where all the refreshments were, get them set up, get everybody arranged, clean up trash, etc. It would have been nice to know ahead of time we were expected to do that. Especially since we had the typical unexpected issues, like a Mom freaking out because her kid couldn't have nuts and he was hungry.

Once we got everyone settled, I welcomed everyone, invited them to visit the YRC and introduced the stories. I then read Clever Beatrice. When I as getting ti the end, the Princess arrived. I stopped, let everyone know she was here, then waited as she made her way up to the front to sit beside me. She walked up and offered her hand to shake while thanking me for being there. I finished the story. Then she welcomed the visitors in a beautiful French accent, and tried to ask the kids some questions. I thought this was hilarious, but also felt bad for her, but the kids totally clammed up. She tried asking three different kids in the front some questions, like if they liked the story or what they liked to read, but they just stared at her and didn' say a thing! It was funny because I had just spent an hour playing with them, and they were anything but quiet, plus they had asked my a bunch of questions about the Princess. She turned to me and asked if they were always this quiet. Of course I had to say no.

Next I read Too Many Fairies, which was fun because it included sound effects that I had the kids help me with. After, the Princess thanked me and asked me how I had chosen what books to read. She then presented a gift of a couple of books to the Children's Literature librarian. She was then supposed to leave, but she was semi mobbed by the kids who wanted to give her the pictures they colored and get her autograph. Despite what her entourage wanted, she stayed and talked to the kids. They took a group picture, then she left. I figured the press was going to all leave with her, but some stayed behind and talked to the kids and parents. I was supposed to continue story time, but by then I had lost them all, so I just hung around in the background. The photographer for the LOC interviewed me real quick. Then everyone left, Joe and I cleaned up and headed back to the YRC. We were completely exhausted. I was mortified to find out the Too Many Fairies book had a huge rip in the back, which Joe told me had been there the whole time I was reading, and was the side the Princess was on. Great impression, reading a torn book! Sheesh!

Anyway, it was a crazy experience, but fun and definitely once in a lifetime. How many people on earth can say they read picture books to a Princess and a bunch of kids from Belgium? I'm very glad I had the opportunity, but very glad it is over :)

Check out this site with pics:

http://belgianeconomicmissiontous.tumblr.com/post/7047423164/libraryofcongress

More Fun in DC!

- Kennedy Center - friend Russ performed, show included several choirs, second half was operetic recreation of events in Bulgaria involving the people refusing to send Jewish people to concentration camps
- Falls Church farmers market and Civil War balloon recreation
- Eastern Market again (tried a soft shell crab for the first time, not a big fan)
- visited the Library of Congress as a tourist
- watch an arena polo match out in the Virgina countryside (I could be a big polo fan if it existed out in Texas)
- visited the Oak Mar ward and went to potluck
- Kennedy Center Milenium stage free performance
- Old Town Alexandria (ate at La Tascas, tapas restaurant. Awesome! Glad Carrie introduced me to the real deal)
- National Museum of American History (amazing display of pop-up books, transportation, and military)
- Navy Band concert at Navy Memorial (what's cooler than the Navy band performing Highway to the Danger Zone from Top Gun - all the songs were themed on flying to honor the naval aviators)
- early dinner at Tony & Joes on the Potomac
- National Symphony Orchestra prelude concert in the Kennedy Center (snippets from each of the upcoming season peformances, had seats on 8th row of orchestra level - and they were free!)
- dinner at Matchbox in Chinatown
- saw my roomies Shakespeare play, Love's Labors Lost
- relaxed at sculpture garden again
- Gettysburg - battle reenactments (awesome!), replica camps and shops, lunch in town at Dobbins House Tavern (oldest building in Gettysburg, 1776 - cool colonial atmosphere)
- attempted to go to rehersal of CApitol 4th concert - canceled because of storm :(

They're here!

The books for my project are finally here! And oh man, I'm overwhelmed! There are 65 boxes of appr. 50-75 books each. I only got 3/4 through one box today. I'm so fascinated by all these picture books I haven't seen before, they suck me in. Its going to be almost impossible to select so few to keep. This is going to be fun though! Opening those boxes is just like Christmas morning!

I've finally got the stories picked out for the story time for the Princess. Now I just have to practice! Everything else has been business as usual at the YRC this week.

You won't hate it if you understand it

This week at the LOC was very enlightening. Monday a few of us met with Peter in the copyright office and he spent an hour and a half telling us all about the history and functions of the copyright office. Tuesday there was a Junior Fellow lecture given by Dr. John Cole, the director for the Center for the Book (my big, big boss) and resident expert on the history of the LOC. Fascinating! Friday we had another lecture with the new Copyright Register who answered many questions about how copyright works and is applied.

I am definitely getting a better grasp on the workings of the LOC. Also, I finally am understanding copyright, it's real purpose, and that it is not there to make life miserable for teachers and librarians. I've always found it such a pain until now. Peter gave the most insight by saying it is a balance between protecting creative freedom and allowing access. That was a big ah-ha. Best thing is he said they are really working on outreach and helping people, especially educators understand it better. They are doing video conferences, which will allow me to not have to be a copyright Nazi when I eventually get my own school library. The LOC can do that for me :)

Still doing the same old thing in the YRC, greeting and talking about books. It's fun, but I'm ready for a challenge. The books for the Roback gift collection are on their way, so I'll finally get to start that soon. This week I have two days to get everything ready to begin the collection inventory and for the princess visit in two days before everyone leaves for ALA. Should be a busy week. Yeah!

DC fun week 3

- Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden (my new happy place)
- Capitol grounds and reflection pool
- Dinner group at Lost Dog Cafe
- Air and Space museum (hands on how flight works exhibit was awesome!)
- Thomas Jefferson Memorial
- attempted military band concerts, but canceled because of rain storms (which I was caught in)
- Washington Monument
- Ford's Theater (museum and one act play "One Destiny")
- surprise birthday party for Bishop Larson
- explored Capitol Hill
- attempted Nationals game (rain, sold out), went to dinner in Chinatown instead at Full Kee, yummy!
- Eastern Market (amazing breakfast at Market Cafe (french toast with fresh fruit salsa), flea market/farmers market/art fair - bought watercolor of Library of Congress)
- discovered Capitol Hill Books in Eastern Market area, crazy used bookstore with hilarious owner and endless haphazard stacks of books - bought 1895 book about DC society)
- sculpture garden again and lunch at cafe there
- National Zoo - walked a million miles, saw a couple animals, finally discovered the pandas

DC fun week 2

- Mammals and ocean exhibits at the Natural History Museum
- Ate at We the Pizza (owned by Spike from Top Chef) buffalo chicken pizza was awesome
- Walked around Old Town Alexandria
- saw Air Force Memorial, did not see concert that was supposed to be there, it was canceled
- service project at Duncan branch of Alexandria Library - weeded and planted
- Texas party at Belle Haven Park - lots of Texans and yummy Texas food
- Got my Library of Congress reader card

End of Week 2

Friday was a pretty exciting day. When I checked my email in the morning, I saw I had been invited to meet Senator Hutchison at a constituent coffee next month. Cool! That should be very interesting. I haven't met a senator since 4th grade when Sen. Phil Graham visited our school and I read an essay I wrote for him.

We had a few kids come in to the center who were avid readers and so excited to be at the Library of Congress. I had a fun conversation about the Hunger Games series with one middle schooler, and talked to a nice family from Idaho and some grandparents from Plano.

I was able to get together with several of the other Junior Fellows for lunch. They reserved one of the dining rooms for us to get together, chat, and discuss our projects. It was neat to hear what the others were doing and what they'd found so far. I was particularly jealous of some who were working in the European divisions. Apparently they have a tea time at 2 every Friday. Sounds fun.

The best part was getting to be in on a meeting about the visit from the Princess. Jane (YRC supervisor) had me and Joe (the college kid who will also be there) come to the meeting with her. On the way, she showed us a few cool places in the library, including the Members Room, which is a really nice room reserved for Congress. The meeting was held in one of a series of really nice rooms full of antique furniture and special collections of books, including Woodrow Wilson's personal book collection. At the meeting were several representatives from Belgium including security, press, etc. as well as a few from the LOC. I was so fascinating to hear and see the process of event planning for something of this magnitude. Definitely surreal to be part of a meeting discussing motorcades, exchanges of formal gifts, press placements, etc. Apparently the Crown Prince will also be visiting the LOC but will not be at the storytime. He'll be off privately viewing the Federalist Papers and a few other pieces of the LOC rare collections. Nice to be royalty. At the end of the meeting, we were all taken on a quick tour tracing the route of the Princess when she comes. So amazing! We went into the Ceremonial Office of the Librarian of Congress, the Main Reading Room, and the Whithall Pavilion. Finally I got into the Main Reading Room! It is breathtaking, and smells like books!! I felt all official and important being led by a security guard who cleared the path through the tourists and opened the normally locked doors to go right in. The Whithall is where I will be reading the stories to a bunch kids (both Belgian and American), the Princess, the press, etc. Yikes! The room was awesome though, especially because that is where the LOC collection of Stradivarius (sp?) violins are on display, as well as a rare flute collection. The funniest part of the tour was the Belgian security guy who we kept losing because he would wander off to look at something or take pictures.

Though it was amazing to be in on meeting, it made me more nervous about the whole thing, At least I have plenty of time to prepare. Now I have to figure out what to read. I don't think I'll take the advice of one of the guys at church to read Everybody Poops 

Princess storytime???

Guess who is slated to do storytime for the Princess of Belgium and group of kids from the embassy? ME! The bosses will all be out for ALA that week, leaving me as the most qualified. Therefore, I will be reading kids books to royalty. Crazy! I hope she brings some chocolates :)  Do I have to curtsy? Who knew learning dignitary protocol would be part of my internship. I better practice!

P.S. Ironically, I just finished reading Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. Hopefully no bandits show up to kidnap this princess!

Surplus...Heaven within Heaven

I consider the library of Congress to be librarian heaven. This week I was introduced to one of its sub-heavens...the surplus room. This is where all of the books that filter through the LOC that were not chosen to be part of the collection end up. Its rows and rows of thousands of freebies! They make the surplus books available to the staff to take (though they cannot leave the building). They also allow nonprofits to come select to add to their collections. So free books for schools and libraries! Woohoo! They also told me about going through your Congressman to get them shipped for free. Another thing I learned which is pretty amazing is that they do an exchange program with other countries using the surplus. If a country sends the LOC say 100 books, they have credit to basically online shop surplus to have 100 books sent back to them. Pretty neat!

So today I went with my supervisor to search the children's section for any books to add to the YRC. It was so fun! we found a few goodies to take with us.

Otherwise this week has just been working the center...greeting people, telling them about the YRC, talking about books, keeping things straightened up. We still don't know for sure what my project is going to be, so tomorrow's intern meeting about projects should be interesting. We're going to pretty much make something up for the meantime, until the gift collection comes in.

DC fun week 1

So here are some of the fun things I have done during this first week in DC:

- National Memorial Day Concert (saw BB King, Colin Powell, joint chiefs, cast members of Criminal Minds, and National orchesrta)
- National Memorial Day Parade
- Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery (saw Pres. Obama at the wreath laying)
- toured the Jefferson building at the LOC
- became a Smithsonian member
- saw the new Hope Diamond display at the Natural History Museum
- met new friends at church and institute
- Had game night at our place, learned some new games
- Went to a dinner party
- drove around Alexandria
- helped plan a Texas party for next week
- made friends with other interns

Day 4: Finally it starts

So this day was the first actual day of the internship where we all reported to our assigned areas. I spent the first hour orienting myself to the building and getting familiar with the Center. There's a hidden spiral staircase right across from the Center which leads to the Children's literature reading room if you go up and the underground tunnels if you go down. Pretty cool!

Next was attending the event to kickoff the lead up to the National Book Festival, and the summer reading program for the DC public library. The Center was part of the planning committee. I was introduced to the director of the Center for the Book, John Cole. He is also the designated expert on the history of the Library of Congress. Awesome! Already getting the networking going. For the event, they invited school kids to come to the program, which was MC'd by NFL linebacker Chris Draft. He did an amazing job getting the kids excited and really promoting the importance of the love of reading. His foundation is partly dedicated to promoting reading. Also performing was a storyteller Diane Macklin, who was fabulous, and an elementary steel drum band (never heard one of those before, they were great!). It was so fun to see such an effective program to get kids excited about reading. I would love to be involved in such events in the future.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent manning the Center. My supervisor left early to travel out of town for a presentation, so I didn't have anything specific to do. If people came in, we welcomed them, told them a bit about the center and what was there and answered any questions. I love being able to interact with the public, especially with something I am passionate about, and most especially when they are too. I'm glad I won;t be stuck in a cubicle in an office, I love working with people. Though, we weren't very busy, so it went by slowly. It seems more needs to be done to direct people to the Center, especially since it's kind of hidden in the back corner of the lower floor.

I was able to discuss and learn a bit about the program from the other workers there. There is another grad student doing a different internship, I high school volunteer, a couple other volunteers that come on certain days, and a LOC employee temporarily assigned to the Center. I was enlightened to some of the more frustrating issues with working in such a large institution which is part of government.

Day 3

Finally, last day of orientation! We had more to do today thank goodness. We had training in the LOC website and database, then lunch. I had a burrito at a burrito place on Pensylvania Ave, which they promised was frequented by many Texans and Californians. I was not impressed, so those people must have been out of the state for too long.

Anyway, then we went on a tour of the Jefferson building, which is onw of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. And I get to work there everyday! It is full of ornate decoration, but the best part is almost every single decoration is symbolic, related in some way to knowledge, information, or books. I love that place! Also, discovered a reason to have to like Jerry Jones. Gag! He actually donated a significant amount to the recreation of the Thomas Jefferson library collection. So now I can't thoroughly despise him :(

Last was a chance to actually go to where our internships would be. We were supposed to be picked up by our supervisors, but mine didn't show, so I had to be taken by the program director. So, first experience seeing the Young Reader's Center. It's a very warm, nice place with fewer books than I expected. I pretty much got a quick overview of the place, then went home. More details the next time.

Day 2

I know, I know, late. Anyway, Day 2 was even more boring than Day1. We pretty much sat around and talked for most of the day, as people were finishing HR stuff. I finished all of mine Day 1, so had hours of nothing to do. We got a quick talk in security procedures, which was way less tense than I expected, considering we're in DC next door to the Capitol. Training for school safett was more exciting. Really could not wait to get started for real.

Library of Congress internship: Day 1

So, probably the most exciting thing that happened today was me taking a spilled bottle of apple juice in the lap within the first two hours. Huge wet spot on front of skirt and shirt, sticky juice running down my legs and into my shoes. Fabulous! It was pretty funny though. And no, I didn't knock it over, the girl next to me did.

We spent the whole day pretty much doing nothing. Some paperwork, ID badges, fingerprinting, all which probably should have been accomplished within a couple hours instead took all day. I was so antsy for something to do besides sit around and wait and chat. Oh well. We did get a speech by THE Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, which was cool. That was really the best part. He spoke about the huge advancements in knowledge resources, the role and purpose of the LOC, and about learning new things every day.

I got to meet the librarian I'll be working with, Jane, for about two minutes. She had to close the reading center down just to be able to come say hi then rush back, which lets me know I am in for some very busy days, yeah!

Hoping tomorrow's orientation is not more of the same!