December 1, 2010 -- The Library of Congress Office of Strategic Initiatives welcomes new staff member, Kris Nelson, who will focus on managing the office's internship program.
Kris Nelson
Previously, Nelson worked in the Library's Copyright division for eight years, where he was a copyright examiner and later a registration specialist for the Performing Arts division, checking claims from people asserting that they wrote the songs they submitted.
His undergraduate degree in music education helped him determine whether something was original or plagiarized. He said, "I listened to everything that came through and sometimes had to use my musical knowledge to determine whether something was copyrightable or not." If the song was accepted, the copyright office would create a public record for it. He also dealt with published material from Sony, EMI and other commercial publishing companies.
Eventually Nelson became a trainer, developing curriculum and training materials to prepare newly hired specialists for work within Copyright's electronic registration system. Along the way he acquired an MBA.
In September, he joined OSI as an assistant to executive program officer George Coulbourne. Nelson helps coordinate facilities management and operations management, but his main focus is the OSI internship program. "One of my big projects right now is to partner with libraries and universities to develop this digital technology internship," Nelson said. The interns will come from different disciplines. "The program could span library science, business, policymaking, copyright law," he said. "We're still trying to define where we want to take it because it's so new."
Nelson is helping the Library to partner with the Association for Library and Information Science Education (external link) to help the internship program. He is also helps define the type of internships and interns the Library needs and coordinates the arrangement with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (external link). He also coordinates internships with the Washington Leadership Program at Indiana University (external link) and the Presidential Management Fellows Program.
For more information about the internship program, email internOSI at loc.gov. The Library of Congress also has a general webpage for internship seekers.
