It is the largest and most comprehensive
library in the world, located in Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress
functions as the national library of the United States, although it has never
been officially recognized as such through legislation. The library’s primary
purpose is to serve the Congress of the United States, but its collections,
services, and reading rooms are freely available for use by all persons over
high school age. The Library of Congress also serves as the official copyright
agency of the United States.
Established by an act of Congress in 1800,
the library was first located in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Today
the Library of Congress occupies three large buildings in the Capitol Hill area
of the city, near the Capitol building and the United States Supreme Court
building. Approximately 1 million people visit the library each year.
The Library of Congress also works closely
with specialized libraries in the executive branch of government that have been
designated by Congress as national libraries. These include the National
Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and the National
Library of Education.
Copyright Depository
Through a provision in U.S. copyright law,
the Library of Congress is entitled to receive copies of every work registered
for copyright in the United States. Copyright deposits make up the core of the
general collections. The library's role as the U.S. copyright depository has
contributed to the popular belief that it contains one copy of every book
published in the United States. It does not. The library is not required to
retain all U.S. copyright deposits indefinitely. Through a program in its
Exchange and Gift Division, the library shares with other institutions items
that are declared surplus to its needs.
Personal Papers
The library’s manuscript holdings include the
personal papers (letters, diaries, and other documents) of 23 American
presidents ranging in time from George Washington (1732-1799) through Calvin
Coolidge (1872-1933). (The personal papers of many presidents after Coolidge
are contained in the presidential libraries of the National Archives and
Records Administration in Washington, D.C.) The Library of Congress manuscript
collections also contain the personal papers of other eminent Americans, such
as poet Walt Whitman, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, social reformer Susan B.
Anthony, humanitarian Clara Barton, abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass,
and composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
Foreign Languages
Many of the library's foreign languages
collections are exceptional. Its foreign newspapers and gazettes are
particularly strong. In addition, two-thirds of the library’s 17 million books
are in languages other than English. Its Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean,
and Polish collections are the largest outside of those countries, and the
Arabic collections are the largest outside of Egypt. The library’s collection
of Hispanic and Portuguese materials is among the largest in the world
(Encarta Encyclopedia)