Ah yes, sounds very similar to what I went through when I participated in 1996 so not a lot had changed in 30 years! I lived in a dorm room on the campus of Catholic University and rode the red line down to Union Station and from there most days I walked over to the Madison Building in the heat/humidity. I was assigned a fulfilling, though very detailed, project and in exchange picked thousands of map sheets (do not know how many titles it represented) from the Duplicates Collection to have shipped up to University Park when I was done. Very quickly the Maps Cataloging Team decided to make these a separate cataloging project to make sure the maps didn't languish in a corner somewhere, I know it took months for the four of us to tackle but we did get it done. Lots of "side benefits" out of the project too, not the least of which was getting to know Division staff and strengthening relationships I had already built with members of the cataloging unit as well as getting to know the other participants who came from a variety of institutions. Many great memories of my time!

From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Salvano, Christopher M. <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2020 8:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division Summer Program -- anything ever published about it?

Paige,

A couple grad students from the Cal State Northridge (CSUN) Geography Department attended in ‘59 and again in ‘64 I think. I’ve only heard anecdotal stories and personal oral histories about how the students lived in small dorms and were able to pick through the discards piles in exchange for their work. At night they played poker with their dorm mates from other institutions using the maps as currency since no one had any real money.

The CSUN student in ‘64 sent back a couple pallets worth of maps in one delivery—about 100,000 maps was the estimate, the largest single acquisition for the Map Library. So either LC had a liberal discard policy or he must have been a really good poker player.

I’d be interested to read more about this program too.

Chris Salvano

Map Curator

Oviatt Library

California State University, Northridge

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 23, 2020, at 4:56 PM, Andrew, Paige G. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am having a discussion with a colleague here at Penn State about capturing the long and useful history (1950s - I think mid-2000s) of the Summer Project that the G&M Division hosted annually that benefited so many libraries around the country as well as the Division itself, wondering if there has been much, if at all, written about it. In my vague recollection I am sure I saw/read an article in a Library of Congress Newsletter (staff publication) years ago about it. I wouldn't be surprised if at least a couple of map librarians out there wrote articles published in places like the SLA G&M Division Bulletin or the WAML Information Bulletin over the years. We both feel that a project to write about this important part of the LC G&M Division's history would be worthwhile, particularly as fewer and fewer Division employees (even retirees) who were a part of it are still around as well as those who participated in it at least once (Penn State participated numerous times over the years, with different individuals, including myself; I believe a couple of institutions hold records for most times participating and most times participating over consecutive years).

If you are aware of any articles, write-ups, summaries or similar have been written about the Summer Projects (and not only in peer reviewed publications, ANY publication) please contact me directly, I'd appreciate the assistance in a literature search.

Sincerely,

Paige Andrew

Cartographic Resources Cataloging Librarian/

Distinguished Librarian

Penn State University Libraries