July 16, 2022
Photo of Jennifer Gonzalez, Senior Law Librarian at Law Library of Congress
Jennifer Gonzalez is the supervisor for the interns at the Law Library of Congress' digital resource division, which I am apart of. My very first introduction to Jennifer was earlier this year when I applied for (a different internship) program. She wrote me and told me to consider this summer one, and I did, and was quickly offered a spot. I immediately took it, in no small part because Jennifer was so open and engaging to speak with. Over the past couple weeks I have asked her questions and listened to her stories and without a doubt, I will walk away from this internship with her as my inspiration. I hope this interview inspires other people to apply for this internship program. Our assignment for the internship was to wrote a blog post with the goal that it will be published on the Law Library of Congress' blog, In Custodia Legis. Additionally, a few times a week webinars are offered to further our knowledge of Congress, both the Library and the Law Library, and our own legal research skills.
One of the first things I was interested in learning about Jennifer was her role at the Law Library and her path to get there. Jennifer is a senior law librarian and legal information analyst. She engages in a lot of editing and preparing of new materials for the website in addition to running the summer internship program, which is no small feat! Jennifer has a bachelors in history, a law degree, and a masters in library science. She has been with the Law Library since 2013. Her position is entirely remote (and I am so envious!). She lives in Florida with her husband and two young children because her husband is currently stationed there. Although she began her career in Washington DC, her position is unique enough to be handled successfully entirely remotely. I also attribute this to Jennifer's incredible organizational skills. I was curious about her schedule, especially with her young children and also how she creates a work-life balance. My daughter is a similar age and I am trying to learn as much as I can about how to manage my time efficiently. Jennifer starts her work day early, around 6am, which allows her to be finished by 3pm. Working remotely also allows for some convenience and contributes to a manageable work-life balance. We shared a bit about how wild young children can be and how incredibly headstrong the incoming 3 year old is.
Another area I was curious about was how Jennifer became involved in the internship program. And guess what? It was her idea! I'm so impressed right now! While working at the Law Library she kept asking herself what would she have wanted to do as a law school or library intern? So she created this program and it has become extremely successful. As it turns out, she and I both approached law school similarly, so we talked about that for a bit. I wanted to know how she knew this field existed! But more seriously, I wanted to know how she went from law to library. Early on in law school she (and I) both knew that practicing law wasn't for us. Unlike me, she went to library school immediately and started her law librarianship career much earlier than I did. She worked at her law school's library during law school, which opened the door to that as a career. I just did a lot of reading and researching and while I used my library, it did not occur to me that it was a career.
I wrapped up my questions (I did get lost in my questions because Jennifer is so easy to talk to, I would forget that I had a point and this wasn't just two friends chatting) by asking her what advice she would give someone (me) who is going from law to library. She said get out there. Go meet people, get involved in the organizations. The field of law librarianship is relatively small and six degrees of separation is very real. The annual law librarianship conference is happening right now so hopefully I am able to make it next year and meet some of these fabulous people that I have only talked to virtually.
Addendum:
Listed below are the questions I asked:
1. How long have you been working at the Law Library of Congress?
2. How are you able to work this position remotely?
3. What is your education?
4. How did you get involved with the intern program?
5. What can of advice do you have for people entering the field?
6. How do you find work life balance with your children?
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