United States Library of Congress
The United States Library of Congress, located in Washington D.C. and distributed Spanning three buildings (the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John Adams Building, and the James Madison Building), it is one of the largest libraries in the world, holding more than 158 million items. The Library of Congress collection includes more than 36 8 million books in 470 languages, more than 68 million manuscripts, and the world's largest collection of rare and valuable books, including one of only four perfect copies of Gutenberg's Bible, and the draft of the Declaration of Independence. In addition, it houses more than one million publications of the United States government, one million numbers of newspapers from different parts of the world, from the last three centuries, 500,000 rolls of microfilm, 6,000 comic titles, the largest collection of documents legal, films, nearly 5 million maps, sheet music, 2.7 million sound recordings, songs, and more than 13.7 million engravings and photographic copies. The oldest document is a stone tablet from the year 2040 BC. C. It also houses works of art, architectural drawings, and valuable instruments such as the Stradivarius Betts and the Stradivarius Cassavetti.
The Library of Congress was built by Congress in 1800, and remained in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century. After most of the original collection had been destroyed during the Anglo-American War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold 6,487 books, his entire personal collection, to the library in 1815. After a period of decline during the 19th century, The Library of Congress began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War, culminating in the construction of a separate building and the transfer of all copyright depository holdings to the Library. During the rapid expansion of the 20th century, the Library of Congress assumed a quintessential public role, becoming a "library of last resort" and expanding its mission for the benefit of scholars and the American people.
The Library of Congress is, in practice, the national library of the United States, promoting the reading and acceptance of American literature through various projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, the Center for the Book, and the United States Poet Laureate. It is also the official research site for the United States Congress, with the primary mission of conducting research done by members of Congress through the Congressional Research Service. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress (Librarian of Congress), currently James H. Billington. The Library is organized into twenty-nine reading rooms, one of which is the Hispanic Reading Room, created in 1939 and named after the influential Hispanic Society of America.
History
Origins and contribution of Jefferson (1800-1851)
The Library of Congress was founded on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed an Act of Congress that provided for the transfer of the capital from Philadelphia to the new city of Washington. In those laws, a fund of $5,000 was established for the purchase of books necessary for the functions of Congress. The collection, purchased in London, consisted of 740 books and 3 maps, and was deposited in the new Capitol building. The collection covered a variety of subjects, but most of the materials were of a legal nature, reflecting the role of Congress as a law maker.
Thomas Jefferson played an important role in the early formation of the library, when on January 26, 1802, he enacted the first law establishing the structure of the library. It defined the role of the Librarian of Congress (a position appointed by the president), as well as a "Joint Committee on the Library" to regulate and supervise the Library and allow the President and Vice President to borrow books. In August 1814, the small library was destroyed by British troops, in a fire that burned down the initial collection of around 3,000 volumes.
A month after these events, however, Jefferson himself offered his private library to replace the lost collection. Jefferson had been amassing his library for 50 years, collecting numerous volumes on various subjects, including philosophy, science, and literature, as well as other subjects not necessarily related to the legislative functions of Congress, such as cookbooks, for example. In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson's offer, in exchange for a value of $23,950 for his 6,487 books.
Weakening (1851-1865)
The antebellum period was difficult for the Library. During the 1850s, librarian Charles Coffin Jewett of the Smithsonian Institution tried aggressively to move that organization toward conversion into the "National Library of the United States." His efforts were blocked by Joseph Henry, the secretary of the Smithsonian, who advocated a focus on scientific research and publishing and favored the development of the Library of Congress into the National Library. Henry fired Jewett in July 1854, ending the Smithsonian's attempts at a conversion into the National Library, and in 1866, Henry transferred the Smithsonian's 40,000 volumes to the Library of Congress.
On December 24, 1851, the largest fire in the library's history destroyed about 35,000 books, roughly two-thirds of its 55,000-book collection, including two-thirds of Jefferson's original gift. Quickly, in 1852, Congress appropriated $168,700 to replace lost books, but not to purchase new materials. This marked the start of a conservative period for the library, under an administration with John Silva Meehan as the librarian and James A. Pearce as the chairman of the Joint Committee, which worked to restrict library activities. In 1857, Congress transferred the Library's public records distribution activities to the Department of the Interior and its program for international book exchange to the Department of State. Abraham Lincoln's policies appointing John G. Stephenson as Librarian of Congress in 1861 further weakened the Library; Stephenson focused on non-Library affairs, including volunteering as an aide-de-camp at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg during the American Civil War. At the conclusion of the war, the Library of Congress had a staff of seven for a collection of 80,000 volumes. The centralization of offices for copyright in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1859 ended thirteen years with the Library as a repository for all copyrighted books and pamphlets.
Spofford Expansion (1865-1897)
The Library of Congress was reasserted during the second half of the 19th century under librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford, who headed the Library from 1865 to 1897. Aided by a global expansion of the federal government and a favorable political environment, Spofford built a broad bipartisan support for the library, as a national library and legislative resource, thus initiating a comprehensive collection of Americana and American literature, directed the construction of a new building to house the Library, and transformed the position of Librarian of Congress into a position of strength and independence. Between 1865 and 1870, Congress appropriated funds for the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, placed all copyright registration and depository activities under the control of the Library, and restored the system of international book exchange to the Library. The Library also acquired the large libraries of both the Smithsonian and historian Peter Force, significantly strengthening its collections of Americana and scientific works. In 1876, the Library of Congress had 300,000 volumes and was tied with the Boston Public Library as the largest library in the nation. When the library moved from the Capitol building to its new headquarters in 1897, it contained more than 840,000 volumes, 40% of which had been acquired through copyright depositories.
One year before the library moved to its new location, the Joint Committee on the Library held a hearing session to assess the state of the Library and to plan for its future growth and possible reorganization. Spofford and six experts sent by the American Library Association, including future Librarian Herbert Putnam and Melvil Dewey of the New York State Library, testified before the committee that the Library should continue to expand to become a truly national library. hearings, and with the assistance of Senators Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont and Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana, Congress increased the Library's staff from 42 to 108 and established new administrative units for all aspects of the Library's collection. Congress also strengthened the office of the Library of Congress to govern the Library and make staff appointments, as well as require Senate approval for presidential appointments to the position.
Post-Reorganization (1897-1939)
The Library of Congress, stimulated by its reorganization in 1897, began to grow and develop more rapidly. John Russell Young, Spofford's successor, though only serving for two years, overhauled the Library's bureaucracy, used his connections as a former diplomat to acquire more materials from around the world, and established the Library's first library programs. assistance for the blind and the disabled. Young Herbert Putnam, Young's successor, led the office for forty years from 1899 to 1939, entering the position two years after the Library became the first in the United States to own a million volumes. Putnam focused his efforts on making the Library more accessible and useful to the public and other libraries. He instituted the interlibrary loan service, transforming the Library of Congress into what he called a "library of last resort". Putnam also expanded access to the Library to "research scientists and suitably qualified individuals". #34;, and began publishing primary sources for the benefit of scholars.
Herbert Putnam increased diversity in Library acquisitions. In 1903 he convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to transfer by executive order the documents of the founding fathers from the State Department to the Library of Congress. Putnam expanded foreign acquisitions as well, with the purchase in 1904 of some four thousand volumes from the Indica Library; the purchase in 1906 of the collection of eighty thousand volumes by the library of the Russian G. V. Yudin; the purchase of opera librettos in 1908 from the Schatz collection; and in the early 1930s, the purchase of the Russian Imperial Collection, consisting of 2,600 volumes from the Romanov dynasty library on a wide variety of subjects. The collections of Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese works were also acquired. There was even an occasion in which Congress took the initiative to acquire materials for the Library, when in 1929 Congressman Ross Collins of Mississippi successfully proposed the purchase for 1,500 $000 from Otto Vollbehr's collection of incunabula, including one of four extant copies in mint condition of the Gutenberg Bible.
In 1914 Putnam established the Legislative Research Service (LRS) as a separate administrative unit of the Library. Based on the Progressive Era philosophy of science as a problem solver, the LRS would provide informed answers to Congressional research questions on almost any subject. In 1965 Congress passed a law allowing the Library of Congress to establish a trust fund committee to accept donations and endowments, giving the library a role as a patron of the arts. The Library received donations and endowments from prominent individuals such as John D. Rockefeller, James B. Wilbur, and Archer Milton Huntington. Gertrude Clarke Whittall donated five Stradivarius violins to the Library, and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's donations paid for a concert hall in the Library of Congress building and the establishment of a fee for the Music Division. A number of chairs and consultancies were established from the donations, the best known of which is the "Poet Laureate Consultant".
The library expansion eventually filled the main library building, despite shelving expansions in 1910 and 1927, forcing the Library to expand into a new structure. Congress acquired the nearby land, and in 1928, approved construction of the Annex Building (later the John Adams Building) in 1930. Although with a delay over the years of the Great Depression, it was completed in 1938 and opened to the public in 1939.