Interview With Law Library of Congress Rare Book Cataloguer Anna Bryan

In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, has been running an interview series featuring members of the library staff. The series started in late October 2010.

The most recent interview is with Anna Bryan, Rare Book Cataloguer:

How would you describe your job to other people?
In my experience, people don’t understand what cataloging is, so I usually simply say that I get to work with the most amazing books in the world. It is such a privilege. Over here it says 'Cataloging is the process of adding an item to a catalog, a process typically including bibliographic description, subject analysis, and classification.' To that I would add that rare materials cataloging has the additional elements of identifying and authenticating those items.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?
I’m always amazed by the treasures we find, both in the Law Library and in non-law collections. Recently we were able to establish that a manuscript of Virginia General Court reports was Thomas Jefferson’s copy ...  (And people say cataloging is boring …)

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.