The Library of Congress Junior Fellows Program (JFP) is a paid, 10-week annual summer internship program that enables undergraduate, graduate students, and recent graduates to gain career experience by working with analog and digital collections and supporting the services of the world's largest library.
1. Must be a U.S. citizen. Permanent residents are ineligible for consideration. 2. MUST be a U.S. citizen currently enrolled at time of application in a degree-granting program of study at an accredited institution of higher learning at the undergraduate level (college, university, or tribal college), or graduate level, AND/OR have graduated or will graduate between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. 3. MUST BE AVAILABLE TO REPORT TO WORK ONSITE FOR FULL TEN WEEK PERIOD from May 18 through July 24. MUST be available to attend mandatory orientation on Monday, May 18, 2026. NO EXCEPTIONS. 4. Must be available to work a full-time schedule, Monday – Friday during the Junior Fellow Program’s core business hours: 6:30 am – 6:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. 5. MUST be able to commute to the Library of Congress main campus in Washington, DC or Culpeper, VA (Projects 4 and 5) to conduct work duties for the duration of the internship. 6. Appointment/retention is subject to a favorable evaluation of a personnel security/suitability investigation. Note: If selected, you must assist us to expedite processing of your application by responding quickly (within one week) to the Personnel Security Department. It is your responsibility to meet the concrete deadlines set forth under this announcement. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you respond and complete the necessary components of the background investigation within the given timeframe. 7. Resume. 8. Responses to all Vacancy Questions. 9. Latest transcript from the current or most recently attended college or university, official registrar documentation certifying enrollment in Fall 2025, certification of enrollment via Clearinghouse, OR copy of degree obtained in 2025. If you are freshman at your institution and do not have an unofficial transcript at your disposal OR your unofficial transcript does not display enrollment in the Fall 2025 semester, please submit another document from your institution and/or registrar’s office to certify your current enrollment. Certifications via Clearinghouse are acceptable to verify enrollment. Lastly, if you have graduated in 2025: a copy of your degree will suffice as verification. A legible copy of your latest college/university transcripts or one of the aforementioned enrollment verifying documents is required with your online application. Unofficial transcripts or a copy of your degree are acceptable at the time of application. Your transcript will be used to certify your eligibility for the program. Official transcripts will be required if selected for the position. Transcripts must be issued by the college or university, and must include your name, the name of the institution, and the courses and course dates. Screenshots, JPEGS, Word or other text documents, and stand-alone course lists are not acceptable. Failure to submit the required legible documentation at the time of application will result in disqualification. If you do not have an unofficial transcript at your disposal, please submit another document from your institution and/or registrar’s office to certify your current enrollment. Certifications via Clearinghouse are acceptable to verify enrollment. You may also provide a copy of your degree as verification. 10. Two (2) references (name, email and phone) that can attest to the applicant's proficiency, skills, work ethic, reliability, quality of work, and capacity to work on teams. PLEASE PROVIDE YOUR REFERENCE NAMES, AND CONTACT INFORMATION AT THE TIME OF YOUR INTERVIEW. DO NOT ATTACH REFERENCE INFORMATION TO YOUR APPLICATION. Letters of Recommendation are NOT required for the application. For all documents except professional references, you should follow the steps for submitting documents found below in step 5 of the "How to Apply" section. IMPORTANT NOTE: Once selected and hired for the internship, every effort will be made to accommodate project selections. Due to the popularity of some areas of interest, preferred project placement cannot be guaranteed. All project areas may not be available at the time applicants are selected and others may be added. Applicants should be sure to indicate three project areas of interest within their applications. Please refer to the “How You Will be Evaluated” section for more information.
The position description number for this position is 404866. This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position. The Summer 2026 session of the Junior Fellows Program includes options for both onsite and remote project work. This posting is for the onsite project track. Interns hired under this announcement will be expected to commute to a Library of Congress facility in Washington, DC or Culpeper, VA to conduct work duties. Working with curators and specialists in various divisions, Junior Fellows explore collections, resources, and initiatives and produce products that position the Library of Congress as a dynamic center for fostering innovation, sparking creativity, and building lifelong connections. With guidance from mentors, Junior Fellows are exposed to a broad spectrum of library work, including: reference, access, public programming, copyright, preservation, and information technology. JFP projects increase access to Library of Congress collections and promote awareness of the Library's resources to Congress and people across America. In the past, Junior Fellows have identified and interpreted hundreds of historical, literary, artistic, cinematic and musical gems representing the Library’s rich creative and intellectual assets. Program Focus The focus of the program is to increase access to Library collections and to promote awareness and appreciation of the Library's services to Congressional members, scholars, students, teachers, and the general public. Junior Fellows encourage the use of collections and services − ensuring that the Library of Congress is known as a living, dynamic center for scholarly work and meaningful connections. Program participants inventory, catalog, arrange, preserve, and research collections in varied formats, as well as assist in digital and analog library initiatives. Upon completion of their assignments, Junior Fellows work closely with Library curators and specialists to plan and present a display of their most significant discoveries and accomplishments. The Junior Fellows Program, a signature initiative of the Library of Congress since 1991, is made possible by gifts from the late James Madison Council member Nancy Glanville Jewell through the Glanville Family Foundation, the Knowledge Navigators Trust Fund, the Library Internship and Fellowship Trust Fund, and the Mellon Foundation. 2026 Onsite Projects: The onsite project names for 2026 are listed below. For full project descriptions and list of required skills/knowledge for each project, applicants must review the information at this link prior to applying. # 01 Economic Research on Copyright and Creative Industries (Onsite) # 02 Enhancing Access to Posters (Onsite) # 03 Descriptive Cataloging for the Ilmar Mikiver Estonian Collection Materials (Onsite) # 04 Office of War Information Collection Lacquer Processing (Onsite - Culpeper) # 05 Universal Music Group Collection Lacquer Processing (Onsite - Culpeper) # 06 A Nation Changed: Preserving the 9/11 Newspaper Collection (Onsite) # 07 Sharing the Work of the Conservation Division (Onsite) # 08 Illuminating Provenance: Capture and Catalogue of Historic Watermarks (Onsite) # 09 Collections Preservation: Tangible Media and Digital Forensics (Onsite) # 10 Visions of Modernity: Documenting 20th - Century Chinese Magazines and Journals (Onsite) # 11 Enhancing Accessibility to an Ephemeral South Asia (Onsite) # 12 Governing by Edict: Recording Legal Enactments of Pre-Revolutionary France (Onsite) # 13 Organizing the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Creation of a Spatial Search Application (Onsite) # 14 Inventorying Photographs of Political Development Moments in Sub-Saharan Africa (Onsite) # 15 Mary Wolfskill Internship, Manuscript Reading Room (Onsite) # 16 Hidden Voices: The Hebraic Pamphlets and Booklets Collection (Onsite) # 17 Elizabeth Brown Pryor Internship, Manuscript Division Reading Room (Onsite) # 18 Reconstituting Gao Hongcai’s Collection of Chinese Shandong Gazetteers (Onsite) # 19 Exploring, Evaluating, and Enhancing Discoverability of Microfilm Resources (Onsite) # 20 Providing Access to American History (Onsite) # 21 Yiddish Bibliographic Records Metadata Enhancement Project (Onsite) # 22 Finding our Place in the Cosmos with the Carl Sagan Book Collection (Onsite) # 23 Providing Access via Descriptive Cataloging for Yudin Russian Collection (Onsite) # 24 The Source for Teens: Engaging Teen Audiences in The Source: Creative Research Studio for Kids (Onsite)