The World's Largest Library
The World's Largest Library
You might think the largest library in the world would be in Europe． But it isn't． It's in Washington, D. C． It's called the Library of Congress.
If you think the largest libraries in the world are in Europe, you are wrong. In fact, the largest library in the world is in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, called the Library of Congress.
President John Adams started the library in 1800 for members of Congress. He wanted them to be able to read books about law． The first 740 books were bought in England． They were simply set up in the room where Congress met． Then Thomas Jefferson sold Congress many of his own books. He felt Congress should have books on all subjects, not just on law． This idea changed the library for good．
This library was built by President John Adams in 1800 for members of Congress. He wanted lawmakers to read books about the law. The first collection of 740 books was purchased from Britain and placed haphazardly where Congress met. Later, Tom Jefferson sold many of his book collections to Congress. He believed that Congress should have all kinds of books and should not just collect a few law books. This view brought permanent changes to the Congressional collection.
The library grew and grew． Now it covers acres of land． It contains 20 million books as well as scores of pictures, movies, globes and machines． Experts in every field work there. Hundreds of people call every day with all kinds of questions. Many of them get answers right over the phone.
The Library of Congress has grown larger and larger, now encompassing several acres. It has a collection of more than 20 million books. In addition, there are many pictures, videos, globes and machines. Experts in every subject have a place here. Hundreds of people call every day with various questions. Many of them got satisfactory answers over the phone.
The library is a huge storehouse. Thomas Edison's first movie and Houdini's magic books reside there. And it is the proud owner of the world's best collection of comic books.
This library is a huge collection room. Thomas Edison's invention of the first moving picture and Houdini's magic book are housed here. Proudly: It is also the largest owner of comedy books in the world.
The Library of Congress is the national library of the United States. It not only serves members of Congress and various committees, but also serves government administrative and judicial agencies, as well as libraries throughout the United States and around the world; it also serves scholars, Researchers, artists and scientists provide information.
In the Capital Relocation Act signed by President John Adams in 1800, Congress appropriated $5,000 for the establishment of a reference library to purchase books and buildings.
The first batch of books was purchased from Britain. Eleven suitcases of books and a box of maps were shipped across the Atlantic and were stored in the new seat of Congress until the British army attacked Washington in 1814. Set fire to the Capitol building, reducing the small library to ashes, and within a month, President Thomas Jefferson removed the fifty-year-old private collection of books from his retirement home at Monticello, Virginia. provided to Congress.
President Jefferson, when he was the U.S. ambassador to France, spent several afternoons in Paris bookstores "rummaging through and purchasing every book on America, rare and valuable on any subject," Therefore, his collection of books is considered one of the best in the United States.
When Jefferson provided his collection of books, he wrote: "I don't know what subjects Congress does not want to collect. In fact, members of Congress may have the opportunity to refer to any subject." After many debates, Congress finally accepted Jefferson's suggestion in January 1815 and appropriated $23,950 to purchase his 6,400 men and 17 books. The National Library of the United States laid the foundation.
The architecture and equipment of the Library of Congress are very distinctive. The Library of Congress located on Capitol Hill has three buildings. The Thomas Jefferson Building is the oldest building in the Italian Renaissance style. When it was built in 1897, it was the largest and most expensive library building in the world at that time. The interior is equipped with exquisite and gorgeous statues, murals, mosaics and other masterpieces by fifty American artists at that time. There are towering buried stone pillars, murals and mosaics, statues and colorful glass windows in the hall, all of which vividly depict academic themes and cultural origins. From the viewing platform, you can see the entire main reading room. (This room is scheduled to be reopened after repairs are completed in 1991.) It is 160 feet high from the ground to the roof. There are 45,000 reference volumes in the room. Books, 250 seats, and several computer terminals capable of searching all database directories.
The John Adams Building, with its simple yet solemn design and a Georgia marble exterior, was completed in 1939. The statues on the large bronze door represent twelve people in history who have contributed to the art of writing, including Cangji, the originator of Chinese hieroglyphics; Cadmus, who invented the first alphabet in Greek mythology; and the inventor of American Indians. Cherokee syllabic writing system of Sequoia Indians. The reading room on the fifth floor is decorated with Ezra Winter's mural depicting The Canterbury Tales.
The white marble James Madison Building was dedicated on April 24, 1980. The building more than tripled the library’s footprint on Capitol Hill. The building houses the official memorial hall of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, as well as eight reading rooms, several offices and special collections of more than 70 million documents and books.
The Library of Congress contains more than 86 million books, covering all subjects of human knowledge, from ancient manuscripts to optical disks. If all the bookshelves were connected, they would be 535 miles long. On average, ten books are received every minute. The library contains 20 million books and pamphlets in 60 languages. An additional 36 million manuscripts include treasures of American history and culture: those of presidents, aristocratic families, writers, artists, and scientists. The Library of Congress has the largest and most complete map collection in the world, with approximately four million items of maps and atlases dating back to the mid-fourteenth century; and a seven-million-item collection of musical works, including autographed scores by composers, Correspondence between composers and musicians also includes shengs from around the world and Italian Stradivarius violins and Toddi bows.
The library’s 10 million images and photographs include original photographs, fine prints, and a variety of popular and applied arts, providing visual records of people, events, places, and other major events in the United States and abroad. . The library receives approximately 75,000 periodicals and 1,200 newspapers each year as permanent collections, which are the main documents that can trace the origin of copyright.
In 1982, the Library of Congress pioneered a project to use the latest technology in optical disks to store images and then reuse them. This experiment not only reduced the size of the collection, but also estimated the size of the collection. techniques to determine the future costs and benefits of preserving books. There are two types of data stored on optical discs: printed data are stored on digital optical discs with high-resolution images, while non-printed data are stored on analog laser video discs with low-resolution images. Several reading rooms are equipped with optical discs to store data. It is convenient for readers to search for papers, journals, maps, music, manuscripts, movie stills and pictures, etc. Storage of some early film and color film clips as well as television samples are included in this innovative project.
According to the New York Times report, the U.S. Library of Congress plans to digitize all collection materials and move into the digital age. The article is titled: The Library of Congress Hits the Data Highway.
The specific report is: The U.S. Library of Congress will announce an ambitious plan to convert the collections of books and materials in the library and all public libraries and research libraries across the country into digital formats. The form is stored. The plan will create a vast "virtual library" in which all books, paintings, manuscripts and photographs will be converted into digital images that will look exactly like the originals and be transmitted to computer screens and high-ends through computer networks. It is viewed by millions of students and researchers on high-definition televisions. The ultimate goal of the Library of Congress is to make film and music materials available to the national public. The initiative could also benefit the Library of Congress. Now it needs lots of bookshelves and bookcases to house its 104 million-item collection. In digital form, dozens of books can be stored on a single disk.
The Library of Congress has struggled over the years with the rapid deterioration of many documents.
In addition, thousands of rare books are stolen by people who like the beautiful pictures or illustrations in the books. After digitization, precious manuscripts can be read again and again, and pictures can be copied. The originals will not be damaged, and there is no need to worry about theft. A draft memorandum titled "Achieving Strategic Directions for Digital Libraries" outlines the Library of Congress's plans. The document said the plan would cost millions of dollars not only for digitization operations but also for the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment needed to digitize and deliver to readers. On average, it costs US$2 to US$6 to digitize a page of ordinary books, and rare and fragile books may cost more. A Digital Library Coordinating Committee will be established to solicit donations from all aspects and congressional appropriations. The program will focus on the technologies needed to produce high-quality digital images of library materials, with the goal of completing the conversion of the most important library materials by the year 2000.
Many libraries—including the Library of Congress and those at Harvard and Cornell universities—have begun experimenting with digitizing printed matter. It can be received through the computer network. However, according to the memorandum, the Library of Congress will take the lead in coordinating both technical and policy actions for all digital libraries so that they can be connected to the same computer network.
When completed, the National Digital Library Project "will be the broadest source of information in the emerging national information infrastructure - often referred to as the information superhighway. Therefore, geographical location will The work of connecting disconnected libraries will also be carried out at the same time.
The draft memorandum also lists a series of technical, policy and legal issues that the plan will face, including copyright issues and preventing "hackers". , computer security issues such as viruses and system crashes, Internet access fees and protecting the privacy of system users, and developing electronic image quality standards.
The Library of Congress directly or indirectly serves citizens or foreign nationals throughout the United States. Provides various services. But its main task is to provide assistance to Congress through research and consultation. The Congressional Research Service was established more than 60 years ago to provide legislators with the various information they need to make Congress more efficient in handling legislative matters. Clear and effective. The Congressional Research Service responds to more than 450,000 inquiries to Congress every year, ranging from the simplest questions to complex ones that require in-depth research. In addition, the Congressional Research Service also prepares bill sections.
The Congressional Research Service is composed of 860 people, including civil engineers, oceanographers, and laborers. Mediators, Soviet missile experts, etc. Their most important task is to provide Congress with objective and impartial information and opinions on both sides of an issue, and then let the members decide.
One hundred and fifty years. The former Congress legislated to establish a legal library department to research and answer difficult questions about foreign laws for Congress, and to respond to congressional inquiries about foreign legislation and legal analysis. The law library is also specialized in the translation of foreign laws in fifty different languages. Experts serve.
The Copyright Division of the Library of Congress oversees U.S. copyright law, becoming a major force dedicated to encouraging literary and artistic creation and extending copyright protection to all creative groups in the United States, including authors. , composers and filmmakers. The department's copyright registrations provide a valuable record of the growth and innovation of American culture and technology.
Copyright registration cards and those established after 1977. The automated archives provide an index of copyright registrations and copyright transfers in the United States from 1870 to the present. There are more than half a million copyright registration records each year. The Copyright Department also provides information on copyright protection, copyright law, copyright registration, Re-registrations, copyright assignments and re-transfers, and the issuance of official documentation of the Copyright Department's records
The Copyright Department's submissions are the primary source for building the library's collection of books, periodicals, and music. and more than half of the maps are handed over to the library collection.
The licensing unit of the Copyright Ministry is responsible for some mandatory registrations, such as the rebroadcast of cable TV programs and the playback of coin-injected jukeboxes, etc. Tax items. The Computer Chip Unit of the Copyright Division enforces the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984.
With the rich academic resources of the Library of Congress, the Library of Congress contributes its huge collection of materials to the world to achieve the goal of dedication to scholarship. Anyone who is interested in research, including any scholars, writers, teachers, artists, journalists, students, etc., who are over the age of 18, can make use of the reading room facilities in the library, including card catalogs, reference books and reference services. Staff consulting services. Readers can also use the computer terminals in the library to search for new books, sources of information in various disciplines, and the history of legislative bodies from the materials designed and stored in the library.
The uses of the documents collected in the Library of Congress are as comprehensive as the types of books in the collection. For example, a graduate student engaged in comparative research on American writers could go to the manuscript room to view the original manuscripts of poet Walt Whitman and poet and great librarian Archibald MacLeish. A violinist can go to the music reading room to view the original scores of Mozart's string quartets. A lawyer can take advantage of the law library's comprehensive collection of foreign legal information. A novelist imagining a detective story set in Eastern Europe can draw on the archives of the General Reading Room, the Department of European and Government Publications, Newspapers, and the Modern Periodicals Room.
As for readers who cannot come in person, the library provides some special services and provides books and other materials to university libraries, public libraries and other libraries across the country through interlibrary loan procedures. For scholars engaged in research in the library, this service is conceived to provide assistance in academic research by bringing special materials not easily available elsewhere. Under the principle of not infringing copyright rights and other restrictions, general readers can order photos by mail from the book reproduction department, directly photocopy photos, copy pictures, and microfilm of research materials, etc.
Written answers to questions on all subjects are available in each main reading room and in each reference department within the library.
In 1980, the library established the "Scholar Committee", with 25 famous scholars representing various disciplines and responsible for reviewing the subjects they specialize in and examining whether the library's collections are effective. to assist research in these areas.
The interlibrary services of the Library of Congress have been very influential. In addition to retaining the Dewey decimal classification system currently used by many public libraries and school libraries, the Library of Congress continued to extend its reach to the late nineteenth century. The Library of Congress classification system developed by the Library of Congress has been adopted by an increasing number of universities and specialized libraries.
Since 1900, many libraries have also relied on the supply of cataloging tools published by the Library of Congress, such as books, printed cards, and machine-readable tapes. This has saved other libraries a lot of money. of time and money.
The Library of Congress assists in researching documents from libraries around the world and across the United States, and publishes various bibliographies, guides, and subject material selections on a wide range of topics, including African folklore and even unidentified flying objects. It also compiles the valuable National Library Catalog, which records the collections of 1,200 North American libraries, books published around the world since 1454, and books in Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic, and Hebrew. Union catalog of books and collection locations.
Through the National Services Program for the Blind and Handicapped and in cooperation with 160 libraries***, the Library of Congress has served more than 705,400 blind people of all ages. Or services for the disabled, providing them free Braille books, magazines or records, audio tapes, and loaning record players and general Braille plates, etc. Every year, almost 2,500 novels or non-fiction books are provided to suit various interests. Used to record and produce Braille, distributed by the Library Cooperation Network. In addition, music books, periodicals, sheet music and musical instruments, including musical instruments and instructional tapes such as piano, organ, guitar and other musical instruments, are produced using braille and recording methods. This service also trains volunteer workers to do Braille, proofreading, recording and recitation work.
Literary and artistic activities are abundant. The Library of Congress holds events throughout the year in the Coolidge Auditorium, which can accommodate 500 people, and the adjacent Whitall Hall, Mary Pickford Theater and Mumford Theater. Activities such as indoor concerts, poetry readings, film appreciation, lectures and discussions are held at the Memorial Hall and other places. Many of the concerts have been broadcast to radio stations across the country. Manuscripts of several speeches are also published by the library.
Through exhibition programs, the library’s treasures are gradually made public, including pictures, photographs, maps, musical scores, rare books and manuscripts, etc. Some exhibitions also travel to libraries and museums across the country. .
Particularly popular are the noontime concerts presented by the Library's American Folklife Center, held monthly from May through October in the Nepchuen in front of the Library's Jason Building Square, performances were performed by music groups representing different folk traditions.
The Library of Congress’s Book Center serves as a catalyst for growing national interest in books, reading, and print. Its symposiums, exhibitions and publications are financed by tax-deductible donations from private individuals and groups. Reading campaigns with themes such as "Everyone Reads," "Read More, Understand More," and "Opening Books Are Beneficial" have been launched in several states in the United States.
The Library of Congress is open every day except Christmas and New Year's Day.
Opening hours: All exhibition venues are open from 9 am to 5:30 pm. The opening hours of the Madison Building exhibition hall, the main hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building and the downstairs exhibition hall are: From Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm, and on weekends and holidays from 8:30 am to 6 pm. On display in the Kennedy Center Performing Arts Library from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays.
Inquiries: The sales department is located in the Thomas Jefferson Building, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; another new sales department is located in the James Madison Building The first floor has been opened since the summer. Library of Congress publications, postcards, records, slides, reproductions, posters, folk souvenirs, etc. can be purchased at the sales department.
Free guided tours: Starting from the entrance of the Thomas Jefferson Building, free guided tours are available for 45 minutes every hour from 10 am to 3 pm from Monday to Friday. Group guided tours must be arranged in advance. For further information please call (202) 707-5458. A slideshow titled "National Library of the United States" gives visitors the best introduction in eighteen minutes. The film is shown every day from 8:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. in a small movie theater near the entrance of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
Monthly activity program list: The library lists exhibitions, poetry readings, concerts and other catalogs for that month every month. This list can be obtained for free at the information desk and sales department, or from the general affairs department. Please contact the Printing Department of the Department.
Photography Rules: Photographs may be taken for private viewing in the exhibition space, but the use of flash is prohibited in any reading room. If you need to use a photography tripod, you must seek permission from the Information Desk Office, Room 105, James Madison Building.
Canteen equipment: The canteen is located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building. It is open to the public every Monday to Sunday from 8:30 to 11:00 am and from 12:30 to 3:30 pm. . In addition, snack bars with food and beverages and vending machines are located in all three buildings.
Restrooms: There are restrooms at the entrance and exit of each building.
Public telephones: Public telephones are installed near the entrance and exit of each building.
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