Seth Wells M.S. Library Science (Metadata Intern at the Library of Congress)

Seth Wells, a San Antonio resident, joined UNT’s Library Science program last fall because it is one of the few ALA accredited programs that can be completed 100 percent online. He started volunteering at the Witte Museum in collections to get experience with cataloging. The head of collections had received a donation in 2018, but the collection had yet to be catalogued, so Seth saw an opportunity to get his foot in the door. Seth says that the most useful aspect of this volunteer work has been learning the Rediscovery Program. He still felt that he wanted to gain more experience, so he applied for an internship at the Library of Congress since having that on his resume would certainly be helpful. 

Seth started his internship the first week of January and has been spending about 10 hours per week changing PDF scanned bills from the 90th congressional session into searchable files correctly saved with sponsors’ names, dates, and committees. The goal is to make the files easy to access and search as references. Learning to reformat physical files into electronic files of metadata is an urgent need for the government. By digitizing these bills, a more equal access to all citizens can be attained.

Seth graduated from University of Texas at San Antonio with a B.A. in History. He loved old materials, books, and museums, and he had done a work study at the Institute of Texan Cultures. After learning about how museums interacted with school districts to promote their programs, he started to think that a career in cataloging for museums could be just right for him. That is what led him to the M.S. Library Science program.

He is thankful to both Dr. Sarah Ryan for telling him about that internship in his INFO 5000 class and to UNT LISSA, a student organization for information and library science majors, for helping him with his cover letter.