Library of Congress

Library of Congress


While in Washington, the capital of United States, we had great pleasure in visiting the Library of Congress. a conglomeration of lakhs and lakhs of books on variety of subjected so nicely arranged and stored in the racks and cupboards of the library.

The Library of Congress acts as the main research arm for the U.S.Congress and serves as the de facto national library of the United States.

 
Core Functions

Informs Congress: Provides objective, non-partisan legal and policy research through the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to help craft legislation.
Manages Copyright: Operates the U.S. Copyright Office, which registers creative works and administers copyright law.
Preserves Knowledge: Collects and stores millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps, and manuscripts from around the world.
Supports the Public and Scholars: Offers free access to its vast physical and online resources for anyone age 16 and older, alongside hosting cultural events like concerts and exhibitions





It show the rich heritage of highly educated , intelligent presidents and members of the congress, who might have been using such a vast collection of knowledge through lakhs of books for their personal knowledge, references, debates in congress- parliamentary sessions.

Size and Scale

Massive collection: It holds over 170 million items spanning more than 800 miles of bookshelves.
Daily growth: The library receives about 15,000 new items every working day and adds more than 10,000 of them to its physical and digital shelves.
Global reach: Its materials are written in more than 470 languages, and roughly half of the book and serial collections are in languages other than English.

Its a very large building with many floors on different sides with lot of books on various subjects. Though the structure is quite old, it is so well maintained that it is a tourist attraction for people coming from all over the world.

The library is one of the largest libraries in the world, containing approximately 173 million items and employing over 3,000 staff. Its collections are “universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages”.

Many of the Ex Presidents of USA had given their own personal collection of books to this library- including Mr. Thomas Jefferson, a spokesman for democracy and the principle author of Declaration of Independence,1776.founding father and the third president of Unites States from 1801 to 1809.

We were highly impressed by the interest of the Presidents of USA in so many books and subjects, who ruled the nation with their wide knowledge and pragmatic views.


pradipgharpure
August 20, 2026
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