APPLICATION

Apply for this program on USAJOBS.gov: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/854013700

Read the How to Apply guide

INFORMATION SESSIONS

Learn more about the Librarians-in-Residence Program at one of the upcoming Information Sessions:

• Friday, January 16, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Register here: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_LUKJnOu2SduLGpGmkiYp8Q
• Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Register here: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_JHptCb-9QTGAVM6seTkrdg
• Monday, February 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Register here: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_TxETHSGhRI-rLgxFPXX4xQ

 

PROGRAM INFORMATION

In support of developing the next generation of librarians and information professionals, the Librarians-in-Residence program will give early-career librarians the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience in at least one track of the following: Acquisitions and Collection Development; Archives and Special Collections; Cataloging and Metadata; Collection Preservation; Community Engagement; Digital Services; Reference and Instruction; and Systems and Standards. Not every track will be offered each program year. Please refer to the list below and the USAJOBS.gov Vacancy Announcement for the most current offerings.

The Library of Congress is offering 7 positions for the 2026 program. The program begins June 15, 2026 and ends December 11, 2026. There is an optional 4-month extension to April 9, 2027.

Participants will be expected to serve onsite at the Library’s Capitol Hill campus for the duration of the program. Telework is determined by each division, so the number of telework days served will vary.

 

PLACEMENTS

Below are the tracks and placements for the 2026 program.

1. Acquisitions and Collection Development: Discovery and Preservation Services/Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access/Asian and Middle Eastern Division/China Section. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Asian and Middle Eastern (ASME) Division’s China Section, Discovery and Preservation Services is expected to work on mapping electronic resources to the modernized FOLIO workflow and guide the China Section’s acquisitions model to align with the Library’s E-preferred collection development policy. The LIR candidate would develop workflows to increase classified access to electronic resources, both purchased and open access, and adapt the standard techniques of collection management to improve discoverability and access to the Asian Division’s electronic resources. The LIR would work as a China Section liaison with the electronic resources coordinator in the Collection Development Office, the Chinese collection recommending officers in the Asian Division, and the librarians in the ASME Division to fully merge electronic resources access and discoverability in the FOLIO environment. This would also include managing digital collections that require deeper organization for user discovery, tagging databased classification and structuring digital archives for subject enhancement. The final product of the LIR residency would be a fully automated e-Resources classification model that maps database trials, acquisitions, access, and discoverability in a preservationist legacy environment. The LIR candidate would require basic reading knowledge of modern Chinese, preferably in both simplified and traditional characters.

 

2. Archives and Special Collections: Researcher and Collections Services/General and International Collections Directorate/African and Middle Eastern Division. The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) provides access to unparalleled collections documenting the literatures, cultures, and histories of regions extending from the southern tip of Africa to the Mediterranean coast, across the Middle East to Central Asia, and to the Indian Ocean Islands. With the support of a significant grant from the Lilly Endowment, the Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in AMED will join an exciting initiative aimed at enhancing public understanding of the religious cultures of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The LIR will support the division’s program to foster conversation, discovery, and learning around the diverse and complex religious cultures of these regions and their diaspora communities in the U.S. and worldwide. Responsibilities include working with unprocessed materials, supporting the creation of new digital collections, and developing online collections-based resources to expand discovery and access to the Library’s holdings. Additionally, the LIR will contribute to efforts to improve the researcher experience—both onsite and online—by helping reach new audiences and responding to traditional reference inquiries in person, by phone, via Ask-a-Librarian, and at the reading room reference desk. The LIR will also engage in public outreach activities such as writing blog posts, co-developing and supporting public programs, and helping deliver instructional sessions. Advanced proficiency in a Middle Eastern language such as Hebrew or Arabic is advisable but not required.

 

3. Cataloguing and Metadata: Discovery and Preservation Services/Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access/Asian and Middle Eastern Division/Israel and Judaica Section. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Israel and Judaica Section will be expected to perform all aspects of cataloging and hopefully gain some experience in applicable areas of acquisitions and inventory work. Cataloging will include descriptive, subject, and classification work in bibliographic records, reviewing and creating and updating name authority records (NARs) as well as responding to NAR queries in consultation with a staff member. The LIR may be called upon to review completed bibliographic services agreement (BSA) catalog records provided by the Section’s vendors. The LIR may also be called upon to perform certain aspects of acquisitions work, including interacting with donors and vendors, opening boxes and checking invoices, and creating initial bibliographic control (IBC) records as well as inventory work such as labeling and serials check-in. Overall, the position requires reading knowledge of Hebrew, and some knowledge of Yiddish is highly desired.

 

4. Community Engagement: Researcher and Collections Services/General and International Collections Directorate/Asian Division. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Asian Division (AD) will assist with AD’s initiative to engage new, younger, and online audiences, including students and young professionals. AD has traditionally excelled in serving established researchers such as doctoral students, faculty, and scholars at domestic and international institutions. An LIR position focusing on community engagement will help the division broaden its user base by identifying potential new segments and developing targeted outreach strategies to amplify awareness among younger audiences. Working closely with AD librarians and specialists, the LIR will identify content likely to appeal to younger users and will compile LibGuides as the go-to venue for connecting with and serving them. The LIR will also collaborate with the Informal Learning Center and the Office of Communications to determine effective channels and platforms for outreach. Strengthening AD’s social media presence will be another key responsibility, including creating content that resonates with target audiences. The LIR will participate in staff meetings, briefings, and tours; interact with researchers, patrons, and event attendees; and gather insights and feedback to guide the design and content of orientations and instructions. The LIR may also contribute posts to the 4 Corners of the World blog. This project strongly supports the General and International Collections Directorate’s performance goal to increase users’ engagement with services and expertise. It further complements the Researcher Experience Initiative by offering a model for language-based collections. The focus on Asian-language content may serve as a framework adaptable to other collections broadly. Candidates should be able to read in one of these languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian languages (examples: Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, Urdu), Southeast Asian languages (examples: Balinese, Burmese, Indonesian, Javanese, Khmer, Lao, Malay, Tagalog, Thai, Tetum, Vietnamese); Tibetan; Mongolian.

  

5. Digital Services: Discovery and Preservation Services/Digital Services Directorate/Digital Collections Management and Services Division/Web Archiving Section. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Web Archiving Section will be immersed in the collaborative work to create, manage, describe, and make the Library's web archives accessible. The LIR’s projects and tasks will cover the areas of digital content management, project planning and management, and consultation and liaison work. For digital content management, the LIR will assess web archives for completeness using documented workflows. Additional representative tasks include interacting with Library systems to clean and manage metadata and performing automated processing of digital content at scale. Special projects may include research and collaboration to develop automated workflows for enhancing description of web archives and performing quality assurance on web archive descriptive records. Within project planning and management, the LIR will contribute to creating new and refining existing workflows for web archive descriptive records. The LIR will schedule and track work using assigned Agile methods and tools. Tasks may also include testing tools, methods, and scripts. As part of consultation and liaison services, the LIR will contribute to advocacy of the program by presenting to internal stakeholders and writing about their project work and experience for the Library’s digital preservation blog, The Signal. The LIR will collaborate with colleagues to solve problems and develop digital content management processes. The LIR will have opportunities to build professional knowledge, exchange information, and connect with communities of web archive practitioners within the Library, nationally, and internationally.

 

6. Reference and Instruction: Researcher and Collection Services/General and International Collections Directorate/Researcher Engagement and General Collection/Researcher Experience Section. In support of users engaging virtually with librarians, collections, and services, the Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Researcher Engagement and General Collections Division (REGC) will work on the development of a suite of short videos and instruction modules to introduce library users to research at the Library of Congress (how to get a card, how to request/use materials, etc.), as well as basic information literacy techniques and research methods (advanced/Boolean searching, research dos and don’ts, etc.). The project will also allow us to reconceptualize how our instructional videos are presented—in a shorter, more easily digestible, and more popular format. These bite-sized tutorials will streamline an outdated collection of long-format videos and provide better point-of-need service that can be embedded within our research guides, shared research pages, FAQ knowledgebase, and more. As part of the team providing research and reference services within the Main Reading Room, the LIR will also have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with services and collections across the Library via shadowing at the reference desk—both virtually and in person—in order to efficiently guide users via the instructional videos and modules they develop. The videos produced by the LIR in collaboration with the Researcher Experience Section can be used and re-used by all reading rooms. While the LIR will be assigned to and work under the supervision and guidance of REGC, the work they are performing ultimately benefits all users interacting with the Library remotely through all our virtual spaces and reference services. 

 

7. Reference and Instruction: Law Library of Congress/Global Legal Research Division/Public Services Division. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) in the Public Services Division of the Law Library is expected to work on projects, assignments, and tasks in the areas of research and reference services, collection management, and consultation/liaison services. “Research and reference services” includes staffing the Law Library Reading Room reference desk and responding to legal and legislative research and reference questions in person, via telephone, and electronically. The LIR will also work on developing and maintaining legal research/reference LibGuides. The LIR may also work on complex legal research/reference assignments (individually and/or as part of a team). “Collection management” includes using standard techniques to organize and maintain collections. Representative tasks in collection management include government documents inventorying, creating finding aids and documentation for law collections, maintaining the security of the collection, ensuring proper handling of the collection, and collection assessment and review. The LIR can expect to work on collections including web archives, digitized collections, print collections, unique collections, and/or electronic databases. “Consultation/liaison services” includes tasks such as giving tours of the Reading Room; attending staff meetings, briefings, and tours; providing research and reference consultations by appointment; and supporting the Law Library’s instructional services and programs. The LIR may also participate in outreach efforts such as writing for the Law Library’s blog, In Custodia Legis; writing articles for the Law Library’s online publication, the Global Legal Monitor; and providing legal research/reference instructional programs (individually and/or as part of a team).

 

Participants will select their first- and second-choice placements in the application. After a review of applications, selecting officials will contact prospective candidates for interviews and make preliminary selections. Successful candidates will submit paperwork for a mandatory background check.

Participants receive on-the-job training and undertake assignments that contribute to the ongoing mission and work of the Library. They participate in enrichment assignments and receive mentoring from seasoned professionals. They are also expected to participate in Library-wide activities, such as the National Book Festival, and to provide information sessions concerning their professional interests to Library staff as well as report back to their graduate programs on experiences as Librarians-in-Residence.