Largest Library

The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3, 000 volumes. On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6, 487 books for $23, 950.

Statistics

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 164 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 38 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music and 70 million manuscripts.

The Collections

The Library receives some 15, 000 items each working day and adds approximately 12, 000 items to the collections daily. The majority of the collections are received through the Copyright registration process, as the Library is home to the U.S. Copyright Office. Materials are also acquired through gift, purchase, other government agencies (state, local and federal), Cataloging in Publication (a pre-publication arrangement with publishers) and exchange with libraries in the United States and abroad. Items not selected for the collections or other internal purposes are used in the Library’s national and international exchange programs. Through these exchanges the Library acquires material that would not be available otherwise. The remaining items are made available to other federal agencies and are then available for donation to educational institutions, public bodies and nonprofit tax-exempt organizations in the United States.

International Collections

Since 1962, the Library of Congress has maintained offices abroad to acquire, catalog and preserve library and research materials from countries where such materials are essentially unavailable through conventional acquisitions methods. Overseas offices in New Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Jakarta (Indonesia), Nairobi (Kenya) and Islamabad (Pakistan) collectively acquire materials from more than 60 countries and acquire materials on behalf of United States libraries participating in the Cooperative Acquisitions Program. The Library is also collaborating with institutions around the globe to provide content on the World Digital Library.

Foreign Languages

Approximately half of the Library’s book and serial collections are in languages other than English. The collections contain materials in some 470 languages.

African and Middle Eastern Materials

The Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division holds 600, 000 volumes in the non-Roman script languages of the region.

Asian Materials

The Library's Asian Division collection holds more than 3 million items, the largest assemblage of Chinese, Japanese and Korean materials outside of Asia, and one of the largest Tibetan collections in the world.

European, Iberian, Latin American and Caribbean Materials

The Library holds the largest collection of Russian-language materials in the United States and the largest outside of Russia (more than 750, 000 items). The Library’s Iberian, Latin American and Caribbean collections, comprising more than 10 million items (books, journals, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, photographs, posters, recordings, sheet music and other materials) are the largest and most complete in the world.

Law Library

The Law Library of Congress is the world's largest law library, with more than 2.9 million volumes, including one of the world's best rare law book collections and the most complete collection of foreign legal gazettes in the United States. The Law Library contains United States congressional publications dating back to the nation's founding.

Rare Books and Manuscripts

The Library holds the largest rare-book collection in North America (more than 700, 000 volumes), including the largest collection of 15th-century books in the Western Hemisphere. The collection also includes the first known book printed in North America, “The Bay Psalm Book” (1640).

Children's Books

The Library possesses approximately 100 extremely rare children's books, including “The Children's New Play-Thing” (Philadelphia, 1763) and “The Children's Bible” (Philadelphia, 1763).

Smallest Book

The smallest book in the Library of Congress is “Old King Cole.” It is 1/25” x 1/25”, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Largest Book

The largest book in the Library of Congress is a 5-by-7 foot book featuring color images of Bhutan. With support from Microsoft, a team of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recorded the ancient life and culture in this Southeast Asian country and made 40, 000 digital images available to the Bhutan National Archives. A copy of the picture book was donated to the Library of Congress.

Oldest Example of Printing

One of the oldest examples of printing in the world – passages from a Buddhist sutra, or discourse, printed in 770 A.D. – is housed in the Library’s Asian Division. The oldest written material in the Library is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.

Presidential Papers

Foremost among the Manuscript Division's holdings are the papers of 23 presidents, ranging from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge.

Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible, one of the treasures of the Library of Congress, was purchased in 1930. The 15th-century work is one of three perfect copies on vellum in the world.

Prints and Photographs

The Library's Prints and Photographs Division contains more than 15 million visual images, including the most comprehensive international collection of posters in the world, the most comprehensive visual record of the Civil War, and pioneering documentation of America's historic architecture. More than 1.2 million images are accessible on the Prints and Photographs online catalog at www.loc.gov/pictures/.

Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Opened in 2007, the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., was designed for the acquisition, cataloging, storage and preservation of the nation’s collection of moving images and recorded sounds. In partnership with the Packard Humanities Institute, the U.S. Congress and the Architect of the Capitol, the Library’s state-of-the-art facility houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of American and foreign-produced films, television broadcasts and sound recordings. The facility houses 6 million items, including more than 3.6 million sound recordings and more than 1.8 million film, television and video items, representing more than a century of audiovisual production.

Music

The Library holds the most comprehensive collection of American music in the world, more than 22 million items including 8.1 million pieces of sheet music. The collection includes an extensive assemblage of original manuscripts by composers of the American musical theater and the largest collection of any one kind of musical instrument (flute) in the world. The Library sponsors a long-running broadcast concert series of chamber music.

American Folklife Center and Veterans History Project

With more than 6 million items, the Archive of Folk Culture in the American Folklife Center is the largest repository of traditional cultural documentation in the United States and one of the largest in the world. It contains the largest collection of American Indian music and spoken word, including the earliest ethnographic field recordings made anywhere in the world.

The American Folklife Center administers the Veterans History Project, which was established by Congress in 2000 to preserve the reminiscences of the nation’s war veterans. To date, more than 100, 000 submissions have been collected, including many from members of Congress.

What tricks does ariel create in act 3? How to evolve voltorb legends arceus? How to do sns with tips? How to build a raised garden bed? What is the meaning of continent? How to make lotion? How to treat dog eye infection at home? How to clear iphone storage? What is the biblical meaning of shiloh? how to stop microsoft sdx helper How to make a money tree? How to grill lobster tail? What are joules? What do you believe in meaning? What does sia mean? What does passover mean? how to use a fucking helper obj in java How to distinguish your announcement about tutoring tips? What does link in bio mean? How to make alfredo pasta? Skateboarding how to land tricks more consistantly? How to know if i have diabetes? What is the true meaning behind memorial day? What is job position meaning? What does $ mean in excel? Tips on how to pass nursing compentencies? How to watch march madness 2022? Old movie with a squirell who does tricks? How to clean marble countertops? How to get a live wallpaper? how to set download helper folder Tricks how to memorize rock and their characteristics? How to make teal? How much to remodel a kitchen? How to beat anyone at chess: the best chess tips, moves, and tactics to checkma? How to get a vasectomy? How to get rid of ear mites in dogs? What does it mean if your snot is yellow? What does boost post mean on instagram? How to make mirrored exhaust tips automation game? How to turn off private browsing on ipad? What are the seven kingdoms in game of thrones? What are recreational drugs? How to do a barrel roll google tricks? What does mamacita mean in english?