The Library of Congress is America's national library. It has more thanone-hundred-twenty-million books and other objects. It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest.It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings and musical instruments.
All together, it has more than 100 million objects.
The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays. Any one may go there and read anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to take books out of the building.
Dome of the Main Reading Room, Jefferson Building.
The Library of Congress was established in eighteen-hundred. It started with eleven boxes of books in one room of the Capitol Building. By eighteen-fourteen, the collection had increased to about three-thousand books. They were destroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America's war with Britain.
To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books of President Thomas Jefferson. Mister Jefferson's collection includedseven-thousand books in seven languages.
In eighteen-ninety-seven, the Library moved to its own building across the street from the Capitol. Today, three buildings hold the library's collection.
The Library of Congress provides books and materials to the United States Congress. It also lends books to other American libraries, government agencies and foreign libraries. It buys someof its books and gets others as gifts. It also gets materials through its copyright office. Anyone who wants copyright protection for a publication must send two copies to the library. This means the Library of Congress receives almost everything published in the United States.
Computer users can learn more about the Library of Congress and its collection on the Internet. The address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dotg-o-v. Again, the Library of Congress web address is w-w-w dot l-o-c.g-o-v. |