Library of Congress, national library of the United States, Washington, D.C., est. 1800. Thomas Jefferson while Vice President was a prime mover in the creation of the library, and he supported it strongly during his presidency. In 1814, when much of the collection was destroyed by fire, Jefferson offered his own fine library to the Congress. This formed the basis of the collection until 1851, when fire destroyed some 35,000 volumes. The growth of the library progressed slowly thereafter until the passage of the Copyright Act of 1870, which required the deposit in the library of all copyright material. The acquisition in 1866 of the Smithsonian Institution's collection of 44,000 volumes and the purchase of the Peter Force collection of Americana (60,000 volumes; 1867) and the Joseph M. Toner American and Medical Library (24,000 volumes; 1892) made it one of the world's great libraries.

Intended primarily to serve the legislative branch of the government, it is now open to the public as a reference library and sends out many books through an interlibrary loan system. It has African and Middle Eastern, Asian, European, and Hispanic divisions; a law library; and excellent collections of manuscripts, serials, incunabula, geography and maps, rare books, prints and photographs, motion pictures, music and recordings, science and technology, and computer files, representing materials in more than 450 languages. As of 1999, the Library of Congress contained some 115 million items, including about 17 million books, 4 million maps, and 50 million manuscripts. Its Online Catalog provides a database of some 12 million items from its collections. The library sells duplicate catalog entries on magnetic tape to smaller libraries for the books it adds to its collections. It provides other vital services to libraries through its many bibliographic functions (among them maintaining the National Union Catalog of the holdings of 700 large libraries in the United States and running the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped) and its Copyright Office. The library's Poetry and Literature Center (est. 1936) is the home of the U.S. poet laureate. poet laureate , title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having versifiers and minstrels in the king's retinue, and of the later royal patronage of
..... Click the link for more information. Mainly supported by congressional appropriations, the library also has income from gifts by foundations and individuals, administered by the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board.

Bibliography

See studies by P. M. Angle (1958), G. Gurney (1966), M. McCloskey (1968), and C. A. Goodrum (1974, rev. ed. 1982).

Library of Congress

U.S. library, the largest and one of the greatest of what may be considered national libraries. Founded in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it was housed in the Capitol until the building was burned by British troops in 1814; it moved to permanent quarters in 1897. In addition to serving as a reference source for members of Congress and other government officers, it is outstanding among the learned institutions of the world, with magnificent collections of books, manuscripts, music, prints, and maps. It contains some 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.5 million maps, and more than 54 million manuscripts.

Library of Congress

the national library of the USA, located in Washington, D.C.; one of the largest libraries in the world. It was founded in 1800 by the Congress of the USA. It serves primarily governmental organs, research institutions, scholars, private firms, and industrial companies.

According to 1968 data, the holdings of the Library of Congress amounted to 14.5 million books and brochures, 132,000 volumes of bound newspapers, more than 29 million items of manuscript materials, 3.3 million items of musical scores, more than 3 million maps, and many other materials, including motion-picture films, phonograph records, and microfilms. The annual increase in holdings of the Library of Congress ranges from 1 to 3 million items. In content the collections are almost universal (except for foreign medical and agricultural literature, which is collected by the national medical and agricultural libraries). Most fully represented is literature on law, history, philology, politics, natural sciences, and technology, as well as reference and bibliographical publications. The Library of Congress possesses more than 5,500 incunabula, the libraries of T. Jefferson and a number of other presidents of the USA, collections of works of Chinese literature (330,000 volumes) and Japanese literature (450,000 volumes), and collections of rare American editions (60,000 volumes). In 1907 the Library of Congress acquired the library of the Krasnoiarsk merchant and bibliophile G. V. Iudin, which consists of 41,000 books and journals, mostly on Russian history. (At the present time the Library of Congress has approximately 300,000 publications in the Russian language.)

The Library of Congress has 18 reading rooms with 1,460 seats for readers. Of the bibliographical publications of the Library of Congress, the most important are The National Union Catalog, which has been published monthly since 1958, and a union catalog of books in the libraries of the USA (610 volumes).

REFERENCE

Mearns, D. C. The Story Up to Now: The Library of Congress,1800–1946. Washington, 1947.

B. P. KANEVSKII

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No references found			[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since it began six years ago, StoryCorps has recorded more than 50,000 interviews, which are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Record a legacy: capturing the stories of loved ones by Success She served as a panelist at the "Robert Bums at 250" conference sponsored by the Library's American Folklife Center and the government of Scotland, and selected two gifted young poets to receive the library's prestigious 2009 Witter Bynner Fellowships in Poetry. A self-described "unlikely" poet laureate, Kay Ryan is gearing up for ... by Community College Week StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project in partnership with National Public Radio and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. BRIEFLY by The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)			American boreal faunal region American boring system American Bracketed style American Broadcasting Company American caisson American Canoe Association American Cave Conservation Association American Civil Liberties Union American Civil War American Colonial architecture American Colonial Revival American Colonization Society American concentration camps American Conservation Association American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac American explosive American Express Co. American Farmland Trust American Federation of Labor American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees American Federation of Teachers American Film Institute American filter American Folklife Center American football American Forests American Foulbrood American four-square house American foxhound American Fur Co. American Fur Company American Geographical Society American Gothic American Hiking Society American Historical Association American holly American hophornbeam American hornbeam American Indian American Indian Heritage Month American Indian Languages American Indian Literatures American Indian Movement American Indian religions, North American Indian religions, South American Indians American Institute of Architects American International style American jade			American Fishing Tackle Co. American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association American Fitness Alliance American Fitness and Nutrition Academy American flag American flag American Flag and Touch Football League American Flag Day Association American flagfish American Flagship Service American Fleet Leasing Association American Fletcher National Bank American Flight Airways American Flight Echocardiograph American Flint Glass Workers Union American Flock Association American Floral Industry Association American Fly Fishing Trade Association American fly honeysuckle American flying squirrel American Folk Art Museum American Folk Blues Festival American Folk Dance American Folk Dance American Folk Festival American Folk Musicians Association American Folklife Center American Folklore Society American Food and Drug Administration American Food and Drug Administration American Food and Drug Administration American Food and Drug Administration American Food Safety Institute American Food Safety Institute, International American Food Service American football American football American Football (disambiguation) American Football (disambiguation) American Football Association of Japan American Football Bond Nederland American Football Coaches Association American Football Coaches Wives Association American Football Conference American Football Conference North Division American football field American football field American football game American Football in Israel American Football League American Football League Nederland American football linebacker American Football New Zealand American Football Officials Nederland American football positions American Football Schiedsrichter Vereinigung American Football Schiedsrichter Vereinigung Deutschland

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Bibliography

Library of Congress

REFERENCE

Library of Congress
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