National Library - United States
The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress, but which is the de facto national library of the United States.
It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States.
John Cole argues that it is now the largest and most international
library in the world. He attributes that to its highly influential
leaders, especially Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–97), Herbert Putnam (1899–1939), Luther H. Evans (1945–53), and James H. Billington
(1987–). Cole says they "have affirmed and expanded Thomas Jefferson's
concept that the Library of Congress is a national institution that
should be universal in scope and widely and freely available to
everyone".[2]
Located in three buildings on Capitol Hill and the Packard Campus in Virginia, it describes itself as the largest library in the world.[3] However, such metrics are of limited utility due to the variety of cataloguing methods employed by institutions.
The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for eleven years in the temporary national capitals of New York and Philadelphia.
John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was paid
two dollars per day and was also required to serve as the Clerk to the
House of Representatives.[4] The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol
for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s. Most of the
original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814 during the
War of 1812. To restore the collection in 1815, the library bought from former president Thomas Jefferson, 6,487 books, his entire personal collection.
After a period of slow growth another fire struck the Library in
1851, in its Capitol chambers, again destroying a large amount of the
collection, including many of Jefferson's books. The Library of Congress
then began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War
and a campaign to purchase replacement copies for volumes that had been
burned from other sources, collections and libraries (which had begun
to speckle throughout the burgeoning U.S.A.). The Library received the
right of transference of all copyrighted
works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and
diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its
collections of British and other European works and then of works
published throughout the English-speaking world.
This development culminated in the construction during 1888-1894 of a
separate, expansive library building across the street from the
Capitol, in the "Beaux Arts" architecture
style with fine decorations, murals, paintings, marble halls, columns
and steps, carved hardwoods and a stained glass dome. It included
several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks.
The Library's primary mission is researching inquiries made by members of Congress through the establishment of a "Congressional Research Service",
established 1914. Although it is open to the public, only high-ranking
government officials may check out books and materials. The Library
promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book and Poet Laureate.
Holdings
The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32
million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more
than 61 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, a Gutenberg Bible (one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist);[13] over 1 million US government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning the past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; over 6,000 titles in all, totaling more than 120,000 issues comic book[14] titles; films; 5.3 million maps; 6 million works of sheet music; 3 million sound recordings; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings;[15] the Betts Stradivarius; and the Cassavetti Stradivarius.
The Library developed a system of book classification called Library of Congress Classification (LCC), which is used by most US research and university libraries.
The Library serves as a legal repository for copyright protection and copyright registration, and as the base for the United States Copyright Office.
Regardless of whether they register their copyright, all publishers are
required to submit two complete copies of their published works to the
Library—this requirement is known as mandatory deposit.[16]
Nearly 22,000 new items published in the U.S. arrive every business day
at the Library. Contrary to popular belief, however, the Library does
not retain all of these works in its permanent collection, although it
does add an average of 10,000 items per day. Rejected items are used in
trades with other libraries around the world, distributed to federal
agencies, or donated to schools, communities, and other organizations
within the United States.[17] As is true of many similar libraries, the Library of Congress retains copies of every publication in the English language that is deemed significant.
The Library of Congress states that its collection fills about 838 miles (1,349 km) of bookshelves, while the British Library reports about 388 miles (624 km) of shelves.[18][19]
The Library of Congress holds more than 155.3 million items with more
than 35 million books and other print materials, against approximately
150 million items with 25 million books for the British Library.[18][19] A 2000 study by information scientists Peter Lyman and Hal Varian suggested that the amount of uncompressed textual data represented by the 26 million books then in the collection was 10 terabytes.[20]
The Library makes millions of digital objects, comprising tens of petabytes, available at its American Memory site. American Memory is a source for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content. Nearly all of the lists of holdings, the catalogs
of the library, can be consulted directly on its web site. Librarians
all over the world consult these catalogs, through the Web or through
other media better suited to their needs, when they need to catalog for
their collection a book published in the United States. They use the Library of Congress Control Number to make sure of the exact identity of the book.
The Library of Congress also provides an online archive of the proceedings of the U.S. Congress at THOMAS, including bill text, Congressional Record text, bill summary and status, the Congressional Record Index, and the United States Constitution.
The Library also administers the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, an audio book and braille library program provided to more than 766,000 Americans.
Using the Library
The library is open for academic research to anyone with a Reader
Identification Card. One may not remove library items from the reading
rooms or the library buildings.
Since 1902, American libraries have been able to request books and other items through interlibrary loan
from the Library of Congress if these items are not readily available
elsewhere. Through this system, the Library of Congress has served as a
"library of last resort", according to former Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam.[10]
The Library of Congress lends books to other libraries with the
stipulation that they be used only inside the borrowing library.[25]
The Librarian of Congress
James Hadley Billington was nominated in April 1987 by President
Ronald Reagan and was confirmed by the Senate to be the 13th Librarian
of Congress. He took the oath of office in the Library's Great Hall on
September 14, 1987. For information on past Librarians of Congress
More Than a Library
You may know about some of the things the Library of Congress
does, but there are probably many services and responsibilities that
you are unaware of. Because of our special status as the national
library, the Library of Congress' mission encompasses traditional
library services as well as many other roles. This short presentation
will show you why we are "more than a Library."
