An Interview with Thalia Lightstone, Librarian in Residence

Thalia Lightstone recently joined the Digital Content Processing Section as Librarian in Residence on the Digital Services track. The Librarians-in-Residence program (LIR) supports and develops the next generation of librarians and information professionals by providing meaningful work experiences at the Library of Congress. In this interview, Thalia chats with Pedro Gonzalez-Fernandez, Digital Collections Specialist, about how things are going.

Pedro: Could you tell us a bit about what you do as a Librarian-in-Residence (LIR)? How would you explain your job to someone outside the Library of Congress? What do you like most about your current LIR role?

Thalia: Hello! The LIR program gives early-career librarians an opportunity to gain work experience at the Library of Congress. The role is six months (with a possible four-month extension) making it perfect for new grads exploring the field. My track is in the Digital Content Processing Section of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division. In this role, I have the opportunity to work on projects in digital content management, including metadata management and web archiving. One of my main projects involves processing freely available electronic publications, such as e-serials. This includes finding, downloading, and preparing files, running quality checks, uploading files to servers, and documenting workflows. This means that I help copy valuable material from the open web to the Library, where it will remain findable and usable.

What I like the most about my current LIR role is the balance of hands-on work and big-picture impact. The small and careful steps that I take scale across thousands of items and directly support the Library’s mission. The LIR program also allows me to see related work across the entire library through the lenses of the other LIRs, which is inspiring and broadens my understanding of every aspect of the Library’s work.

PGF: I realize that you are brand new to the team and that it’s a lot to take in. That said, I’m curious if you have any initial first impressions of the group that you want to share? In what ways is it what you expected or not?

TL: I’ve continuously been amazed by how passionate and helpful everyone is. I love that people here really care about the mission of the Library – serving the American people by making as much information as possible widely accessible. I’m not only an early-career librarian, but also an early-career professional. As I’ve adjusted from being a student to being a professional, my colleagues have helped me setting up meetings and understanding the workflows with grace. That support has made the size and complexity of the Library feel navigable.

PGF: Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and journey. In particular, what professional or educational experiences prepared you for your role?

TL: During my undergraduate at Tufts University, I received a B.S. in Computer Engineering. Throughout my studies, I loved the organization and systems thinking skills needed to design computers and their components, but I wanted to have a more tangible impact on information accessibility. This led me to librarianship and to the University of Washington where I got my Master of Library and Information Science. There I saw more similarities between computer science and library science than I expected, especially with the rapidly growing volume of born-digital materials, and so my technical background was very useful. 

While I was a student, I also sought practical experience in the field. I was a library science intern at a steel manufacturing company, a digital archive intern at a private family archive, and a cataloger intern at the Northwest Railway Museum. All these experiences prepared me for digital processing, drawing on my technical background to do the work and my library training to keep the bigger picture in view.

PGF: What do you think is the biggest thing you’ve learned so far in working at the Library of Congress?

TL: I haven’t been here that long, but the biggest thing I’ve learned so far is how interconnected the work is. So many different people are needed to perform the Library’s digital content management workflows. My main goal during this residency as an early-career librarian was to understand how the largest library in the world functions. I know I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in these first few weeks, but every single person’s job is critical to the overall mission. And I’m still discovering whole sections of the library every week through tours and lectures.

PGF: Do you have any advice for people interested in getting into the kind of work you do? Are there any skills or competencies that you think are really important for folks that want to get into this field to develop?

TL: As I mentioned, I think that my computer science background has really helped me navigate the digital library world. Gaining skills like being able to understand python, run scripts, and understand file management is the only way to work with large amounts of data. Being able to focus on gaining library skills because I already had the computer skills has made the transition much easier. I’d recommended that you take coding classes during library school to prepare you for digital library work.

PGF: Aside from work, what sorts of things are you passionate about? Do you have any hobbies or interests that you’re up for sharing out with folks?

TL: Like most librarians, I love reading books. I also love feeling connected with nature when I’m outside hiking, running, biking, or skiing. Right before moving to DC, I ran a half-marathon in Seattle with friends and family, which was rewarding in so many ways. I don’t have any current plans, but I’ll probably sign up for another race soon!