the library of congress

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm

of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with

millions of books, recordings, photographs,

maps and manuscripts

in its collections. The Library of Congress offers some beautiful rooms in its

Jefferson and Madison Buildings, located at the corner of First Street and Independence Avenue, S.E.,

for evening events.

The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the

progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people.

The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800 when President John Adams

signed a bill providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city

of Washington. The legislation described a reference library for Congress only, containing

as may be necessary for the use of Congress - and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing

them therein…

Established with $$5,000 appropriated by the legislation, the original library was housed in the new Capitol

until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and pillaging the

contents of the small library.

Within a month, retired President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement.

Jefferson had spent 50 years accumulating books,

indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science

finest in the United States. In offering his collection to Congress, Jefferson anticipated controversy over

the nature of his collection, which included books in foreign languages and volumes of philosophy,

science, literature, and other topics not normally viewed as part of a legislative library. He wrote,

know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection;

there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.

In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson's offer, appropriating $$23,950 for his 6,487 books, and

the foundation was laid for a great national library. The Jeffersonian concept of universality, the belief that

all subjects are important to the library of the American legislature, is the philosophy and rationale behind

the comprehensive collecting policies of today's Library of Congress.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897, applied Jefferson's philosophy on a

grand scale and built the Library into a national institution. Spofford was responsible for the copyright law

of 1870, which required all copyright applicants to send to the Library two copies of their work. This

resulted in a flood of books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints, and photographs. Facing a shortage of shelf

space at the Capitol, Spofford convinced Congress of the need for a new building, and in 1873 Congress

authorized a competition to design plans for the new Library.

In 1886, after many proposals and much controversy, Congress authorized construction of a new Library

building in the style of the Italian Renaissance in accordance with a design prepared by Washington

architects John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz.

The Congressional authorization was successful because of the hard work of two key Senators: Daniel

W. Voorhees (Indiana), who served as chairman of the Joint Committee from 1879 to 1881, and Justin S.

Morrill (Vermont), chairman of Senate Committee on Buildings and Grounds.

In 1888, General Thomas Lincoln Casey, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, was placed in charge of

construction. His chief assistant was Bernard R. Green, who was intimately involved with the building

until his death in 1914. Beginning in 1892, a new architect, Edward Pearce Casey, the son of General

Casey, began to supervise the interior work, including sculptural and painted decoration by more than 50

American artists.

When the Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public on November 1, 1897, it was hailed

as a glorious national monument and

world.

Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 158 million

items includes more than 36 million cataloged books and other print materials in 460 languages; more

than 69 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest

collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.

Newspapers

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most comprehensive newspaper

collections in the world, comprised not only of the major titles published in all 50 states and

territories of the United States, but also of titles from most independent countries and many

dependent states that have existed during the past three centuries. The general newspaper

collection in the custody of Serial and Government Publications Division is comprised of over

1,000,000

current loose issues

, over 33,300 bound volumes, and 500,000

microfilm reels

.

Numerous newspapers are available in

full-text

on Reading Room computers.

S&GP maintains a collection of hundreds of original special commemorative and anniversary

newspaper editions reporting historical events. Also available are specialized microfilm runs

such as American Colonial Press, Early English Newspapers (1603-1818), underground

newspapers, early African-American newspapers, German and Japanese prisoner of war

camp newspapers, and the Russian Revolution Newspaper collection.

Current Periodicals

Consisting of approximately 70,000 current foreign and domestic, unbound serial titles, the

Library's collection is accessible to readers through the Division's Newspaper and Current

Periodical Room. Once bound (generally within 18 months) or microfilmed, periodicals are

served along with other items from the general collections through the Main, Business,

Science, Local History & Genealogy, European, Hispanic, or Microform

reading rooms

.

The Newspaper and Current Periodical Room

is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on

Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays (stack service until 4:00), and from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, (stack service until 7:30). The Library is closed on

Sundays and all federal holidays. Located in

Room LM-133 of the Madison Building

, the

reading room is staffed by reference librarians who provide reference service and assistance

in the use of automated reference tools, and by technicians who assist readers.

Government Publications

The

Division

collects

and

serves

current

U.S.

federal,

state,

municipal,

and

foreign

and

international serial documents in Western European languages. The Division keeps a selective

depository set of U.S. government publications in multiple formats from 1993-. Maintained as a

separate collection, it includes monographs and many titles that have never been added to the

Library's

general

collection.

An

automated

version

of

the

GPO

Monthly

Catalog

of

U.S.

Government

Publications

is

also

available.

United

Nations

documents

dating

from

1945

provide

valuable

information

to

researchers.

Among

the

Section's

auxiliary

collections

are

unbound,

distributed

CIA

publications;

and

an

archival

set

of

Federal

Advisory

Committee

(FAC) documents since 1972.

Electronic Collections

In its Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, the Division makes available to

readers numerous

fulltext

publications on its computers. Generally these provide a broad range

of statistical information, or are indexes, abstracts and indexes to newspaper and periodical

literature, or provide full- text retrieval of newspapers or periodical literature.

To enhance access to its collections and to provide research guidance the Division has made

a number of its finding aids available to the public through the Internet on the

Newspaper and

Current Periodical Reading Room

Home Page.

Online catalog

records for Library of Congress

serial holdings are also available on Internet.