Library of Congress

The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers copyright law through the United States Copyright Office.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. It is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill, adjacent to the United States Capitol, along with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and additional storage facilities at Fort George G. Meade and Cabin Branch in Hyattsville, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. The LOC is one of the largest libraries in the world, containing approximately 173 million items and employing over 3,000 staff. Its collections are "universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages".

When Congress moved to Washington in November 1800, a small congressional library was housed in the Capitol. Much of the original collection was lost in the August 1814 Burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812. Congress accepted former president Thomas Jefferson's offer to sell his entire personal collection of 6,487 books to restore the library. The collection grew slowly and suffered another major fire in 1851, which destroyed two-thirds of Jefferson's original books.

The Library of Congress faced space shortages, understaffing, and lack of funding, until the American Civil War increased the importance of legislative research to meet the demands of a growing federal government. In 1870, the library gained the right to receive two copies of every copyrightable work printed in the United States; it also built its collections through acquisitions and donations. Between 1890 and 1897, a new library building, now the Thomas Jefferson Building, was constructed. Two additional buildings, the John Adams Building (opened in 1939) and the James Madison Memorial Building (opened in 1980), were later added.

The LOC's primary mission is to inform legislation, which it carries out through the Congressional Research Service. The library is open to the public for research, although only members of Congress, their staff, and library employees may borrow materials for use outside the library. Provided by Wikipedia