Library of Congress

 In 2024, I started working in the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress. Basically, my job is to learn and to share what I learn in a variety of ways, including presentations, virtual classroom visits, displays of items in the collection, on-site programming, and blog posts.

If you are a teacher who would like to schedule a virtual classroom visit, I’d be delighted to show your students some old books relevant to your course. Please reach out to me at phastings@loc.gov.

The topics of my blog posts for the Library range beyond the topic of James Joyce, but perhaps you might find them interesting. I’ll post links to my articles here:

• Papermaking: A Rags to Riches Story — This post describes the process of making handmade paper from discarded cloth rags. Our paper today is typically made from wood pulp, but for centuries it was made from linen fibers. I had no idea about any of this stuff until I started working with the old books in the Library’s Rare Book Division.