The largest library in the world.
You may think that the largest library in the world is in Europe. But it's not. It's in Washington, D.C. It's called the Library of Congress.
If you think that the largest library in the world is in Europe, you are wrong. In fact, the largest library in the world is located in Washington, D.C. It is called the Library of Congress.
President john adams opened this library for members of Congress in 1800. He hopes that they can read books about law. The first batch of 740 books we bought in England. They were just placed in the room where the Congress was meeting. Then Thomas Jefferson sold many of his own books to Congress. He thinks that Congress should have books on various subjects, not just laws. This idea changed the library forever.
This library was established by President john adams in 1800 for members of Congress. He wants legislators to read law books. The first batch of 740 books were purchased from England, and these books were randomly placed in the place where the Congress met. Later, Tom Jefferson sold many of his books to Congress. He thinks that Congress should have all kinds of books, not just a few law books. This view has brought permanent changes to the collection of books in Congress.
The library is getting bigger and bigger. Now it covers several acres of land. It contains 20 million books and a lot of pictures, movies, globes and machines. Experts in all fields work there. Hungry people call every day to ask all kinds of questions. Many of them can get the answer by phone.
The Library of Congress is getting bigger and bigger, and now it covers several acres. Collected more than 20 million books. In addition, there are many pictures, movies, globes and machines. Experts from all disciplines have a place here. Every day, hundreds of people call to ask various questions. Many of them got a satisfactory answer from the phone.
The library is a big shop. Thomas Edison's first film and Houdini's magic book lived there. It boasts the best comic book collection in the world.
This library is a huge collection room. The first film invented by Thomas Edison and Houdini's magic books are collected 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, serving not only members of Congress and various committees, but also the administrative and judicial organs of the government, as well as libraries throughout the United States and around the world. And provide information to scholars, researchers, artists and scientists.
In 1800, President john adams signed the Capital Relocation Bill, and allocated 5,000 yuan for Congress to set up a reference library and buy books and houses.
The first batch of books were purchased from England. 1 1 This suitcase book and a box of maps were shipped via the Atlantic Ocean and then collected in the new parliamentary seats. Until 18 14, when the British attacked Washington, the parliament building was set on fire and the small library was reduced to ashes. Within a month, President Thomas Jepperson provided Congress with the private library of Monticello (for 50 years), and Monticello has retired in Virginia. When he was the American ambassador to France, President Jepperson also spent several afternoons in the bookstore in Paris "rummaging through every book about America, no matter what subject is rare and precious", so his book is considered as one of the best books in America.
When Jepperson provided his library, he wrote, "I don't know which subjects Congress doesn't want to collect. In fact, members of Congress may have the opportunity to refer to any topic. " After many debates, Congress finally accepted Jepperson's suggestion in 18 15 1 month, and allocated 23,950 yuan to buy 17 books for 6,400 people, thus laying the foundation for the National Library of America.
The building and equipment of the Library of Congress are very distinctive. The Library of Congress on Capitol Hill has three buildings. Thomas Jepperson Building is the oldest building in Italian Renaissance style. When it was completed in 0/897, it was the largest and most expensive library building in the world at that time, with exquisite and gorgeous statues, murals, mosaics and other masterpieces of 50 American artists at that time. There are towering buried stone pillars, murals and mosaics, statues and stained glass windows in the hall, which vividly depict academic themes and cultural origins. From the observation deck, you can see the whole ordinary reading room (199 1 year will be reopened after maintenance). It is 160 feet high from the ground to the top of the garden. There are 45,000 reference books and 250 seats in the room, and several computer terminals can search all the database directories.
The exterior design of john adams Building is simple and solemn. It is a marble building in the Georgian period and was completed in 1939. The statue on the bronze gate represents twelve people who have contributed to the art of writing in history, including Cang Qing, the originator of China hieroglyphs; Cadmus, the first letter in Greek mythology; Indian Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee syllable note system of American Indians. The reading room on the fifth floor is decorated with murals depicting Canterbury tales by Ezra Winter.
James madison Building with white marble was completed and put into use on April 24th, 1980. The area of this building is more than three times that of the Capitol Library. In this building, there are the official memorial hall of the fourth president of the United States, eight reading rooms, several offices and more than 70 million special documents and books.
The Library of Congress has more than 86 million books, including knowledge of human subjects, from ancient manuscripts to CDs. If all the bookshelves are connected, it can be as long as 535 miles and collect 10 books every minute on average. There are 20 million books and pamphlets in the library, written in 60 languages respectively. There are also 36 million manuscripts, including those of presidents, families, writers, artists and scientists, and other treasures of American history and culture. The Library of Congress has the largest and most complete map collection in the world, with about 4 million maps and atlases, dating back to 14 century. And the collection of 7 million musical works, including the composer's autographed music scores, letters between composers and musicians, sheng flutes from all over the world, and Italian Stradivari violin and Toth violin bow.
The library's10 million pictures and photos, including original photos, exquisite printed materials and various popular and applied artworks, can provide an intuitive record of important events such as people, events and places in the United States and abroad. The library receives about 75,000 periodicals every year, and 1200 newspapers are permanent collections, which are the main documents with traceable copyright sources.
1982, the Library of Congress launched a program to store images on the latest CD-ROM and then reuse them. This experiment not only reduces the collection area, but also estimates the technology to determine the cost and benefit of book preservation in the future. There are two kinds of data stored in optical discs: printed data are stored on digital optical discs with high-resolution images, and non-printed data are stored on analog laser recording optical discs with low-resolution images. There are several reading rooms with CDs, which are convenient for readers to find still shots of papers, periodicals, maps, music, manuscripts, movies and pictures. Some early films and color film clips, as well as TV samples, are stored in this innovative plan.
According to The New York Times's report, the Library of Congress plans to digitize all the collected materials and move towards the digital age. The article is entitled: The Library of Congress steps on the data superhighway.
The specific report is that the Library of Congress of the United States will announce an ambitious plan, the content of which is: to convert the collection materials of this library and all public libraries and research libraries in China into digital form and store them. This project will create a huge "virtual library", in which all books, paintings, manuscripts and photos will be converted into digital images, which will be exactly the same as the original ones when read, and can also be transmitted to computer screens and high-definition TVs through computer networks for millions of students and researchers to watch. The ultimate goal of the Library of Congress is to provide film and music materials to the national public. This plan can also bring benefits to the Library of Congress. Now it needs a lot of bookshelves and bookcases to store its/kloc-0.04 million books. If in digital form, a disk can store dozens of books.
For many years, the Library of Congress has been puzzled by the rapid deterioration of many documents. In addition, many people steal thousands of precious books because they like beautiful pictures or illustrations in books. After digitization, precious manuscripts can be read repeatedly, pictures can be copied, the original will not be damaged, and there is no need to worry about being stolen. A draft memorandum entitled "Realizing the Strategic Direction of Digital Library" outlines this plan of the Library of Congress. According to the document, the plan will cost millions of dollars, not only for digital operation, but also for purchasing, installing and maintaining the equipment needed for digitalization and transmission to readers. The average cost of digitizing a page of ordinary books is $2 to $6, while the cost of rare books and fragile books may be higher. A Digital Library Coordination Committee will be set up to collect donations from all parties and congressional funds. This plan will focus on the technology needed to produce high-quality digital images of library books and materials, and the most important books and materials will be transformed before 2000.
Many libraries, including the Library of Congress, Harvard University and Cornell University, have begun to try to digitize printed matter. Can be received through a computer network. However, according to the memorandum, the Library of Congress will take the lead in coordinating the technical and policy actions of all digital libraries so that they can be connected to the same computer network.
After the completion of this national digital library plan, "it will become the most extensive information source in the emerging national information infrastructure, which is usually called the information superhighway". Therefore, the work of connecting geographically 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, computer security issues to prevent "hackers", viruses and system paralysis issues, network access costs and protection of system users' privacy issues, and the formulation of electronic image quality standards.
The Library of Congress directly or indirectly provides various services to citizens or foreigners all over the United States. However, its main task is to provide research and advice to Congress. The Congressional Research Service Department was established more than 60 years ago to provide legislators with all kinds of information, so that Congress can handle legislative affairs more vividly and effectively. The Congressional Research Service answers about 450,000 inquiry letters to Congress every year, ranging from the simplest questions to complex questions that need in-depth study. In addition, the Congressional Service Department also prepares abstracts of bills, abstracts of major decrees and other reference tools for members and committees' daily legislation.
The Congressional Research Service consists of 860 people, including civil engineers, oceanographers, labor mediators and Soviet missile experts. Their most important task is to provide objective and fair information and positive and negative opinions to the Congress on a question, and then the members will make a ruling.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Congress legislated to set up the Law Library Department to study and answer difficult questions about foreign laws for Congress and answer questions about foreign legislation and legal analysis. The translation of foreign laws is also carried out by legal experts who are proficient in 50 different languages in the law library.
The Copyright Department of the Library of Congress is in charge of American copyright law, which has become the main force devoted to encouraging literary and artistic creation. Copyright protection extends to all creative groups in the United States, including writers, composers and filmmakers. Copyright registration in this department has provided a valuable record for the growth and innovation of American culture and technology.
The copyright registration Directory Card and the automated archives established after 1977 both provide an index of copyright transfer in copyright registration and the United States since 1870. There are always more than 500,000 copyright registration records every year. At the same time, the copyright department also provides some information about copyright protection, copyright law, copyright registration, re-registration, copyright transfer and re-transfer, and issues official documents related to the records of the copyright department.
The materials submitted by the copyright department are the main source of library collections, and more than half of their books, periodicals, music and maps are handed over to the library for collection.
The licensing unit of the copyright department is responsible for some compulsory registrations, such as the broadcast of cable TV programs and the broadcast of coin-operated jukeboxes. The computer chip department of the copyright department implements the semiconductor chip protection law passed in 1984.
With its rich academic resources, the Library of Congress has contributed a huge collection of materials to the world in order to achieve the goal of academic commitment. Anyone interested in research, no matter any scholar, writer, teacher, artist, journalist, student, etc. Those who have reached the age of 18 can use the reading room equipment of the library, including the card catalogue, reference books and consulting services of reference service personnel. At the same time, readers can use the computer terminal in the library to search for new books, the sources of various disciplines and the history of the legislature from the materials designed and stored in the library.
The library of congress has as many uses as books. For example, a graduate student who is engaged in the comparative study of American writers can go to the manuscript room to consult the manuscripts of the poet walt whitman and the great librarian Archibald mcleish. Violinists can check the original score of Mozart's string quartet in the music reading room. Lawyers can use complete foreign legal materials in the law library. Novelists can use the literature in general reading rooms, European departments, government publications, newspapers and modern periodical rooms to conceive a detective story in Eastern Europe.
As for readers who can't come in person, the library provides some special services to provide books and other materials to university libraries, public libraries and scholars engaged in research in other libraries all over the country through interlibrary loan procedures. The idea of this service is to provide special materials that are not easy to obtain from other places to help academic research. Under the principle of not infringing copyright ownership, ordinary readers can mail-order photos from the book copying department, directly copy photos, and copy microfilms of photos and research materials.
All the main reading rooms and reference departments of the library provide written answers to various subject questions.
1980, the library set up a "scholars' committee", composed of 25 famous scholars representing various disciplines, to investigate the disciplines they specialize in and whether the library's collections can effectively assist the research in these fields.
The inter-library service of the Library of Congress has always been very influential. In addition to retaining the Dewey decimal classification currently used by many public libraries and school libraries, the Library of Congress continues to expand the Library of Congress classification formulated at the end of19th century, and more and more universities and professional libraries adopt this method.
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, which have saved a lot of time and money for other libraries.
The Library of Congress assists in consulting the literature of libraries around the world and in the United States, and publishes various bibliographies, guides and topic choices, covering various topics, including African folklore and even UFOs. At the same time, it also compiled a precious national book joint catalogue, which recorded the collections of 1200 North American libraries, the books published all over the world since 1454, and the joint catalogue and collection locations of Chinese, Japanese, Slavic and Hebrew books.
Through the national service plan for the blind and disabled and the cooperation of 160 libraries, the Library of Congress serves more than 705,400 blind or disabled people of different ages, providing them with free Braille books, magazines or records and tapes, and borrowing records and ordinary Braille versions. Every year, nearly 2,500 novels or non-fiction books are sent to be recorded and made into Braille together with books suitable for various interests, which are distributed by the cooperative network of libraries. In addition, music books, periodicals, music scores and musical instruments, including piano, organ, guitar and other musical instruments and teaching tapes, are all made in Braille and recording. The service also trains volunteers to do Braille, proofread, record and read.
The Library of Congress holds indoor concerts, poetry readings, film appreciation, speeches and seminars in Coolidge Auditorium, whittle Hall, Mary Pickford Theatre and Mount Ford Memorial Hall, which can accommodate 500 people. Many concerts are broadcast on radio stations all over the country. Manuscripts of several speeches are also published by the library.
Through the exhibition plan, the treasures of the library are gradually made public, including pictures, photographs, maps, music scores, rare books and manuscripts, and some exhibitions are also exhibited in libraries and museums all over the country.
Particularly popular is the midday concert organized by the American Folk Center of the Library, which is held once a month from May to 10. Music groups representing different folk traditions perform at Neptune Square in front of Jason Building of the Library.
The book center of the Library of Congress is a catalyst to promote the national public's interest in books, reading and printed matter. The expenses of its seminars, exhibitions and publications are donated by private individuals and groups under tax-free preferential conditions. In addition, many states in the United States have also launched reading campaigns with the themes of "everyone reads", "reading more and understanding more" and "opening books is beneficial".
The Library of Congress is open to the public every day except Christmas and New Year.
Opening hours: All exhibition venues are open from 9: 00 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m., and Madison Building exhibition hall, main hall and Thomas Jepperson Building downstairs exhibition hall are open from 8: 30 a.m. to 9: 30 p.m. every Monday to Friday, and from 8: 30 a.m. to 6: 00 p.m. on weekends and holidays. The exhibition will be held from Tuesday to Friday morning 10 to 6 pm at the Kennedy Center Library for the Performing Arts. Closed on Sundays, Mondays and holidays.
Information desk: the business department is located in Thomas Jepperson Building, and the business hours are from 9: 00 am to 5: 00 pm every Monday to Friday. Another new sales department, located on the first floor of james madison Building, opened in summer. In the sales department, you can buy publications, postcards, records, slides, replicas, posters and folk souvenirs from the Library of Congress.
Free guide: From the entrance of Thomas Jepperson Building, every Monday to Friday morning 10 to 3 pm, there is a 45-minute free guide every hour. Group guides must be arranged in advance. For details, please call (202)707-5458. A slide entitled "National Library of America" gives visitors the best introduction in 18 minutes. The film is shown in a small cinema near the entrance of Thomas Jepperson building from 8: 45 am to 8: 45 pm every day.
Monthly activity schedule: the library lists the monthly exhibitions, poetry recitals, concerts and other catalogues, which can be obtained free of charge from the information desk and the sales department, or by writing to the printing section of the General Affairs Department.
Photography rules: you can take photos at the exhibition venue for private appreciation, but it is forbidden to use flash in any reading room. If you need to use a photographic tripod, you must obtain the consent of the information desk in james madison Building/room KLOC-0/05.
Dining room equipment: The dining room is located on the sixth floor of james madison Building. It is open to the public from 8:30 am to 1 1:00 every Monday to Monday, and from 12:30 to 3:30 pm. In addition, all three buildings have snack bars that provide food and drinks and vending machines.
Toilet: There are toilets at the entrance and exit of each building.
Public telephone: Public telephone is installed near the entrance and exit of each building.