library of congress

As I previously mentioned, February 7th was officially my last day of work as a Reference Librarian in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the Library of Congress (LC)—the end of my 13-month stint there. That position was the post-MLS aspect of my CIRLA Fellowship.


LC is the biggest library in the world. It contains about 135 million items, about 20 million of those are cataloged books. These items are stored in 3 buildings on Capitol Hill, plus offsite storage in Landover and Fort Meade, MD and the new Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA.



Most people don’t know that the Jefferson Building is one of the most gorgeous buildings in Washington, DC. (The other two buildings are
the Art Deco-esque Adams Building and the modern Madison Building). Opened in 1898, the Jefferson Building is a tribute to classical culture. It is in the Italian Renaissance style with mosaics, frescoes, architectural details, etc. You see much of this beauty in the Great Hall, which is what the tourists who actually make it there primarily see. But, if you have a chance to see the whole building, you see that practically every inch is artfully decorated and/or painted. I often walked around the building not watching where I was going, as I was often looking at the walls or the ceilings.

The Main Reading Room (MRR), which is where I worked, is the crowning glory of the Jefferson Building. Modeled after the reading room of the British Museum, it is octagonal-shaped with marble walls (in three colors, with each color coming from Tennessee, North Africa, and Sienna), wooden reading tables, and a dome that rises 160 feet.

I've posted some pictures on here. I wish I could put all my pictures on here, but you really just have to see it for yourself. To learn more about the architecture and art of the Jefferson Building, take the virtual tour. You could also read a brief history of the Library.

My former co-worker, Tom Mann, who has been at the Library for over 20 years said that, once he knew he wanted to be a reference librarian, he knew he wanted to work at the best place to be that—the Main Reading Room. So, he moved to DC in order to land his dream job. I didn’t have to go to such extremes to have the opportunity to work at the MRR, but I can certainly see what Tom means. The MRR is the first stop for most researchers at the Library, and reference librarians must be ready to assist with any and all questions. With the variety of readers that utilize the MRR, it is amazing the kinds of questions that people do come up with.

The MRR is a difficult place in which to get one’s bearings as a librarian precisely because the readers have such a range of research needs. Also, the Library has so much resources and databases that it is difficult to keep them all straight, especially in such a short period of time. But it definitely is good training. Fortunately, I had great mentors and co-workers who shared their time and knowledge with me. And that made my brief time there not so overwhelming. Not a bad beginning to my professional career as a librarian…