Welcome to You Ask Andy

Donna Jung, age 13, of Portland, Ore., for her question:

HOW WAS THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS STARTED?

One of the largest and most complete research libraries in the world is located just a bit east of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. It's the world famous Library of Congress. Scholars from every part of the world visit the building each day to study the more than 70 million items in its collections and its more than 17 million books.

Our Library of Congress was established in 1800 when Congress appropriated $5,000 to purchase some books and furnish a room in the Capitol building for the library. It didn't last too long. In 1814 the British burned the Capitol and the library was destroyed, too.

Congress immediately appropriated some more money for a new library, and in 1815 it also purchased the 6,000¬book private library of Thomas Jefferson. There was another fire in 9851 with some damage to the total collection, but the library continued to grow. In 1897 it had grown so large that it could no longer be housed in the Capitol, and a new building solved the problem.

An annex of white Georgia marble was constructed on an adjoining site in 1938. The two buildings now have about 36 acres of floor space on 13 acres of ground. In 1965 Congress authorized the construction of a third building which is now being built. To be called the James Madison Memorial Building, it is scheduled for completion in 1980.

The largest collection in the Western Hemisphere of books printed before 1501, called incunabula, is housed in the Library of Congress. About 5,600 books are in this collection, including a perfect copy of the first important book printed in the Western world, the famous Gutenberg Bible.

The personal papers of almost every President from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge are also included in the impressive library.

One division of the library administers the copyright laws of the United States. Two copies of every publication for which copyright protection was requested are on file.

It's the library's first job to provide research and reference assistance for the U.S. Congress. Next objective is to serve all of the people as the national library and in this area it assists other libraries, scholars and the general public.

Congress administers the library, while the librarian is appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of the Senate.

Library of Congress provides cataloguing information to other libraries on printed cards, on magnetic tapes and in book catalogues. In addition, it loans to other libraries books that are unobtainable elsewhere.

Another service provided by the Library of Congress is making available books in Braille and recorded books to the blind and physically handicapped readers across the nation.

 

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