Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research arm of Congress and the largest library in the world. Its mission is to make information available and useful to the Congress and the American people, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The Library has a fascinating history, established as a small reference collection in the original Capitol building by an act of Congress in 1800. The original Library was destroyed when the British burned the Capitol in the War of 1812, but it was rebuilt in 1815 when Thomas Jefferson donated his own extensive collection of books. It grew throughout the 1800s, especially following the copyright law of 1870, which required every applicant to send two copies of the work to be copyrighted to the Library. In 1897, the Library moved into its own building, the grand Thomas Jefferson Building, next to the Supreme Court and just across the street from the Capitol Building. Today the Library of Congress is the oldest and one of the proudest federal cultural institutions in Washington, D.C., welcoming millions of visitors through its doors every year.

• See the Great Hall and the huge Main Reading Room on a free guided tour through the Library
• Learn about the Library’s diverse 145 million item catalog:
  • The collection takes up approximately 475 miles of bookshelves
  • The collection includes 33 million books, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music, and 63 million manuscripts
  • About half of the collection of books are in foreign languages, with about 470 different languages represented
  • The library has the world’s largest collection of comic books

For more information, visit the official website at www.loc.gov.