Spring 2002

Judy Graves

Judy Graves, '67, and her husband, Frank Graves Jr., '67, returned to campus on Labor Day Weekend to support their alma mater, but in different ways.

As the president of the Baltimore-Washington Club of the Alumni Association, Frank participated in Leadership Weekend, a training session for club and chapter officers.

Judy volunteered to show UL Lafayette College of Education faculty how to take advantage of Internet resources offered by her employer, the Library of Congress.

"What I do is a bit complex," she said. "I coordinate (and design) distance learning projects, including video conferences, web-based workshops and on-site training in our digital collections."

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with about 530 miles of bookshelves and a collection of a mind-boggling 120 million items. Its National Digital Library offers digitized versions of rare and unique items of American history and culture, as well as a growing collection of international materials.

In 1996, Judy developed a website, called "The Learning Page." It’s a gateway on the Internet for educators to the growing online archive called "American Memory," which now contains over 7 million digital items related to the history and culture of the United States. In September, she spent several hours familiarizing the UL Lafayette educators with "American Memory" and "The Learning Page."

"I was thrilled to have an opportunity to give back just a little of what USL had given me," she said.

Graves received a bachelor’s degree in English from USL. She holds a master’s degree in linguistics and a master’s degree in education in instructional technology design, both from George Mason University. Working on "The Learning Page" is no longer part of her regular duties at the Library of Congress. "I’ve moved on to developing training programs for a number of audiences, such as educators, librarians, and the general public," she said.