This is a screenshot during one of my writing and editing sessions. I selected this picture for my summary because it shows a picture of one of my sources that I was proud to write about!
Writing this summary came a little bit late, as I finished my practicum with the Library of Congress, dealt with a very busy work schedule in August, prepared my family for a new phase of life with our youngest entering elementary school (kindergarten1), and starting the fall semester. I hate that I let time get away from me but I know that I wanted to finish this well. I have to admit, doing a practicum this summer on top of my full time job was very challenging. I also was doing a summer 1 class which ended up being too much for my plate. I dropped the class because I knew I needed the bandwidth to fully devote to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the Law Library of Congress. When I started my practicum, I was enjoying it but I was really stressed out with everything else. Once I stopped my summer 1 class, I ended up truly enjoying the practicum experience even more.
Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was going to learn before I started the practicum. Well, other than learning about the law :) Being an older student in my forties, it was a bit odd to be an intern, especially since I've had different job experiences since my late teens. But, I am a firm believer in lifelong learning so even though I was unsure of what I would be learning, I was open to it all. I took advantage of every opportunity presented to me, as much as I could. As long as my work schedule allowed for it, I attended meetings and webinars. Thankfully, my job is semi-flexible and my practicum meetings almost always never interfered with work meetings. Plus, I had a very supportive work supervisor who told me to do what I needed to do for graduate school. With that, I knew the summer could be successful.
I definitely learned a lot about the innerworkings of the federal government! These are things that I wish more people knew about because as citizens of the United States, we always need to be informed so we can make good decisions and help our leaders be accountable. One of the things that surprised me during my practicum was basically how the Library of Congress functioned. Prior to this summer, I just thought it was a big library and whatever else "National Treasure" showed me. But, it is so much more than just being a library! There are so many services within the Library of Congress - like studies about folklore and folk music, community and professional events, special concerts like the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, exhibitions, reading rooms, historical artefacts, and more than just one building. After being an intern, I definitely want to go to Washington, D.C. and visit the Jefferson building, plus whatever else time will allow. In particular, I wish I could visit the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center where they preserve films, television programs, and audio recordings. Unfortunately, it's not open to the public for tours, but they do have film series and concerts open to the public throughout the year. There is still so much to learn about the Library of Congress and I have every intention to continue mining it for information!
I was also surprised by the in-depth information the Library of Congress staff gave the interns when it came to professional development. Though I have been working since I was a teenager, and have been in different office settings, I know I still have a lot to learn when it comes to jobs and careers. The staff were so open to giving the interns all their knowledge and experience that may help us get our foot in the door if we choose to work for the federal government one day. I was very thankful for the LinkedIn workshop as well as the resume writing workshop - both of which apply to me even to this day. I was able to connect with quite a few of the staff on LinkedIn and I know that I can contact them to ask any questions.
Overall, the practicum itself wasn't challenging but balancing it along with my job was. Asides from that, it was truly enjoyable. I think a huge part of it being an enjoyable experience was due to my practicum supervisor, Jennifer Gonzalez. From her first email reply and our first meeting, I knew I would appreciate working with her! She is a very warm and engaging person and single-handedly formed the intern program for the Law Library of Congress. I met with her several times throughout the summer in a one-on-one setting and she was very helpful with all my questions. My small group cohort and my cohort leader Judy also added to my experience at the Library of Congress - getting to hear from Judy and her experiences was so interesting. More importantly, her guidance with my blog post ideas and writing was crucial. If anything, I do wish that I had more interactions with my cohort and got to know them better. A lot of them were way younger than me, but I know I could have learned from them and enjoyed their company as well. I didn't really experience any difficulties during this internship because I knew that Jennifer was flexible and that she would provide any guidance that I needed - which she did, thankfully.
During one of my small group meetings this summer!
This internship experience at the Library of Congress is something that I would recommend to my fellow students! There are more opportunities than just working with the Law Library but even if they just did their internship with the Law Library, they would gain so much just like I did. What's neat is that Jennifer accepts repeat interns and even uses former interns as small group cohorts. I'd love to be a cohort leader one day but I don't feel like my writing and editing skills are strong enough to teach and guide someone else. (For my own purposes, they're fine, though.) Speaking of repeat interns, the Law Library also does metadata internships in the long semesters and at the time of this writing, I am in the middle of my second "unofficial" internship with them doing transcription work. I have 300 files to transcribe, all are either bills or acts or amendments. I decided to do this second internship because I just loved working with Jennifer and the Law Library! Overall, I'm so thankful that I didn't get my practicum waived - I'm glad I took on the challenge of doing an internship because I gained so much from my research, writing, and interactions. This summer was hard personally but as a student, I am a better person having been an intern with the Law Library of Congress.
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