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.