Library of Congress Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress, the unofficial national library of the United States, is one of the most important libraries in the world. Originally founded as a research library for the United States Congress on April 24, 1800, its original collection was composed of the books of former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Later, the Library assumed a role as a legal repository to guarantee copyright protection. All authors seeking American copyright had to submit two copies of the work to the Library. This requirement is no longer enforced, but copies of many books published in the US still arrive at the Library regularly. It contains many important books and collections, such as a Gutenberg Bible. The Library itself is spread over three buildings in Washington, DC: The James Madison Building (between First and Second Streets on Independence Avenue SE) The Thomas Jefferson Building (between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street on First Street SE) The John Adams Building (between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street on 2nd Street SE) Main Library of Congress Building at the start of the 20th century The Library also developed a system of book classification called Library of Congress classification (LC) which is used by most research and university libraries, although most public libraries continue to use the Dewey decimal system. With over 128 million items, it is one of the largest libraries in the history of the world, surpassed only by the British Library, which contains over 150 million items. With over 520 miles of shelves, the Library of Congress certainly is the longest library in the world. The library is open to the general public for academic research, and runs tours for visitors. Only people with a permit can enter the reading room and access the collection. Permits are available in the Madison building upon presentation of a picture ID. It is estimated that the print holdings of the Library of Congress would, if digitized and stored as plain text, constitute 17 to 20 terabytes of information. This leads to the commonly-repeated but misleading equivalence of 20 terabytes to the entire holdings of the Library. Only selected portions of the print holdings have actually been digitized, and the Library currently has no plans for systematic digitization of any significant portion of its books. The Library makes millions of digital objects, comprising tens of terabytes, available at its American Memory site. American Memory is a source for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content. Library of Congress reading room The Library of Congress also provides an on-line archive of the proceedings of the United States Congress at Thomas, including bill text, Congressional Record text, bill summary and status, the Congressional Record Index, and the United States Constitution. A burning Library of Congress is a common joke measurement of energy. Librarians of Congress The head of the Library of Congress is called the Librarian of Congress. The list of past Librarians of Congress includes several notable figures: John J. Beckley (1802–1807) Patrick Magruder (1807–1815) George Watterston (1815–1829) John Silva Meehan (1829–1861) John G. Stephenson (1861–1864) Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–1897) John Russell Young (1897–1899) Herbert Putnam (1899–1939) Archibald MacLeish (1939–1944) Luther H. Evans (1945–1953) L. Quincy Mumford (1954–1974) Daniel J. Boorstin (1975–1987) James H. Billington (1987–) See also Library of Congress Country Studies Congressional Research Service Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress Library of Congress Living Legend Library of Congress Classification External links The Library of Congress website History of the Library of Congress American Memory thomas.loc.gov, legislative information Most Popular Articles: Music    Musical Instruments    Guitar    Classical Music    History    Music Definition    Country Music    Rock Music    Pop Music    Hip Hop    Rap    DJ    Video Games    Casino Games    Poker    Blackjack    Casinos    Real Estate    Loan    Auction    eBay    Marketing    Search Engine Optimization    File Sharing    MP3    Music Industry    Kazaa    Internet    Supermodel    Fashion    Fashion Designers    Erotica    Modeling    Clothing    Boots    Shoes    Diamond Engagement Rings    Diamond    Rugs    Gospel Music    Affiliate    E-Commerce    Radio This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html for use of this content. To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress