Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States and a research institution of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with a collection of more than 162 million items. The collection includes books, recordings, films, photographs, maps and manuscripts.

The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world and one of the most important libraries in the world. It is located on Capitol Hill in Washington and was officially opened in April 1800. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States.

The establishment and development of the Library of Congress has a rich history. Initially, on April 24, 1800, as the US government moved from Philadelphia to Washington, the second president John Adams signed a bill to allocate $5,000 for the purchase of books and equipping warehouses, and the Library of Congress was born, with only 740 books and 3 maps at the time. Later, the library caught fire twice in 1814 and 1851, resulting in the destruction of 2/3 of the precious books in the collection. In 1816, its use was expanded to some senior officials. Acts passed in 1802 and 1806 further regulated the librarys related work.

After the Anglo-American War in 1814, former President Jefferson sold his 6,487 private collections to Congress, allowing the Library of Congress to regain its first collection. In 1832, 2,011 legal books were separated from the collection to form a separate legal library. The revised Copyright Act in 1846 gave the Library of Congress the right to preserve the deposited copies. Although the Act was revoked in 1859, the Copyright Act was revised again in 1865 to restore the deposit to the Library of Congress. After 1870, with the promulgation of a series of laws, the library has undergone many reforms, reorganizations, new construction and expansions.

The library has 75 million works, about 18 million bound volumes alone, and nearly 121 million items of various collections. More than two-thirds of the books are stored in multimedia form. Its rich and diverse collection resources cover books, periodicals, legal documents, manuscripts, maps, musical works, films, and various non-print materials, including many rare books, special collections, the worlds largest maps, film and television films, etc. It not only meets the research needs of the U.S. Congress, but also opens its knowledge treasures to scholars and the public around the world through advanced digital technology and services.

The Library of Congress consists of the Jefferson Building, the Adams Building, and the Madison Memorial Building. It is not only a treasure house of knowledge, but also an important symbol of American knowledge and democracy, and occupies an important position in American culture.