From the moment the Internet entered our life and became firmly established in it, libraries around the world experienced a clear outflow of readers. After all, why go to the library if the World Wide Web has access to almost any information. However, this statement can be challenged, given that a huge number of diverse literary works, scientific treatises and a host of other materials have not yet been digitized. Many rare important things are really impossible to find on the Internet. As well as touch the ancient manuscripts or leaf through the yellowed binder of newspapers the century before last. And this is just for the simple reader! So large libraries with extensive collections are still popular. For scientists, writers, politicians and many others, they are simply irreplaceable. One such important repository of world knowledge is the Library of Congress.
History of creation and development
It was founded by American President John Adams on April 24, 1800, when he moved the capital of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington. He also allocated 5 thousand dollars for the purchase of books for the needs of Congress and the creation of a special room for their storage. The library is located in the Capitol. Only the president, vice president, and also members of the Senate and Congress of the United States could use it. That is why it got its name "Library of Congress."
The next head of state, Thomas Jefferson, who was an avid bibliophile, paid special attention to her. He assigned an important role to the library, actively replenished its fund. During the war between England and America in the years 1812-1814, Washington was badly damaged by fire, the Capitol was burned to the ground. James Madison, who was then president, restored the library and bought from Jefferson about six and a half thousand books from the personal archive. The Library of Congress survived another fire in 1851, while losing more than half of its stock. In the 1950s, access was open to ministers, members of the Supreme Court, recognized scholars, writers, and journalists. An important decree was passed in 1870 by the then head of the library, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, stating that one copy of every public publication in the United States should be transferred to the BC. A convenient book classification system was developed by the next leader, Herbert Putnem. A personal library in the form of 81 thousand books and magazines (mainly on Russian history) of the Russian merchant-bibliophile Yudin Gennady Vasilievich in 1907 was purchased and transferred to the fund. The place where the largest collection of books in Russian outside of Russia is located is the library of Congress. The National Library gained its status in the 30s of the last century.
The legacy of all mankind
The very first BC fund consisted of only 740 books and three geographical maps. Over the years, despite the fires, the fund has grown enormously, and today the library of the US Congress is the largest in the world. Today, it stores more than 150 million all kinds of materials. If you measure the length of the bookshelves, you get more than 1000 km. The Library of Congress has publications in 470 languages of the world. There are more than thirty million books, more than 60 million manuscripts, more than a million newspapers over the past 300 years, about five million maps and more than a million publications of the American government, the library's collection includes millions of photographs, films and sound recordings. Each year the fund is replenished by 1-3 million units.
Temple of Knowledge in numbers
To date, access to the library of Congress can be obtained by anyone from the age of 16 years. True, not all information is in the public domain, some are classified. You can work with assets only in reading rooms, there are 20 in total, and 1460 reading places. About 3,500 employees work there. At the moment, work on the digitization of the library fund is not actively conducted, so far it has only been completed by 10%. According to preliminary data, the entire volume of BC in digital form will be about 20 TB.
Appearance
Now the Library of Congress (photos are attached) is located in three buildings located on Capitol Hill, underground passages and depositories connect them to each other. The oldest and most basic building, bearing the name of Thomas Jefferson, was built in the 1890s as a vivid representative of the "gilded age" architecture. In 1939, the John Adams building appeared behind the main building. Its distinctive feature is bronze doors with the Gods of various world mythologies depicted on them. The third building opened its doors to readers in the 70s of the last century and is a memorial to another US president, James Madison. In this part of the BC there is the Mary Pickford Theater , which regularly shows films and television films from the library funds for free. Packard Campus - the so-called visual and audio material storage center, opened in 2007 and the newest building, is located in Culpeper, Virginia. The building was reconstructed from a former bunker, and its name comes from the name of David Woodley Packard, the head of the Humanitarian Institute, who designed the campus. One of the important details of the complex is a cinema made in the Art Deco style.
Copyright Office
The Library of Congress is unique in that it has been registering copyright for 130 years. This is the only national library in the world that deals with depositing, which is of great importance, since it brings income and contributes to the replenishment of funds through the most interesting new publications. The Copyright Office not only registers works by American authors; citizens of other countries can also use these services. You can register absolutely any work, for example, literary, musical, theatrical works, drawings, maps, advertising materials, computer games and programs, and much more. You can use the services of the Bureau on the Internet by filling out an application in electronic form and depositing the necessary amount to the account.