The Library of Congress

A photo I took of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the US Library of Congress in my visit there in summer.


According to the Wiki[pedia, The Library of Congress in Washington,DC  is" the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States"  and also "the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books." I just had a conducted tour there.

At present, it has three main buildings viz. The Thomas Jefferson Building which is the main building, and across the street but joined to it by underground tunnels are the John Adams Building (added in 1928 -39)  and the James Madison Building (built in the 1971-76) and has a movie theatre and also a movie and TV "reading room". Since 2007, It has storage facilities in Virginia for audio visual materials. All are joined by computer and an efficient physical shuttle delivery service such that when something is requested at its website in the morning, the book will be available the same afternoon The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington who announced plans In late November 2005, to launch the
World Digital Library, digitally preserving books and other objects from
all world cultures and In April 2010 plans to archive all
public communication on Twitter, including all communication since
Twitter's launch in March 2006.

The Library of Congress was first  built for Congress in 1800,and was then housed in the Capitol  at which time, different states had different copyright laws but once it was decided in 1859 that the copyright laws should be centralized and that two copies of each book or maps or other publication which intend to have its copyright protected,should be delivered to the Library of Congress as record, books and other publication began to flood in and grew so quickly that it became more and more urgent that funds be set aside for a new building but Congress still stalled its feet until it could no longer do so and the matter was placed under the hands of an army engineer who completed it within budge and on time in 1888-1894 and then the decorations and books had to be organized. In the 20th century, it has become a "library of last resort" in America but besides the "normal" library service, it also hold all kinds of cultural activities like exhibitions, reading programs, talks, lectures  and seminars on various subjects for scholars and ordinary people like American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book and Poet Laureate but as the main research centre for Congressmen through the Congressional Research Service and although it is open to the public, only  Congressmen, Supreme Court justices and other high-ranking government officials may check out books.When I was there, there was an exhibition of the discovery of Americas and the American Declaration of Independence but no photos were allowed to be taken of the exhibits..

The main building was named after Thomas Jefferson for a number of reasons: he signed on January 26, 1802 the law which established the Library of Congress, appointing the post of Librarian of Congress and a Joint Committee on the Library to regulate and oversee the Library, as well as giving the president and vice president the ability to borrow books.The Library of Congress was destroyed in August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol building and the small library of 3,000 volumes within.But within a month, Jefferson offered his personal library which he spent 50 years to build up as a replacement. His books included those on foreign languages, philosophy, science, literature, and other topics not normally viewed as part of a legislative library, such as cookbooks, writing that, "I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson's offer, appropriating $23,950 for his 6,487 books.

The Library of Congress used to have a competitor, the Smithsonian Institution's librarian Charles Coffin Jewett who strenuously tried to turn its own library to be the American national library and only when he was dismissed in July 1854 by the Smithsonian's Secretary Joseph Henry, who wanted the Smithsonian institution to focus on scientific research and publication was the Library of Congress's status as the national library confirmed. Now the collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, a Gutenberg Bible (one of only four perfect vellum copies known to exist); over 1 million US government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning the past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; over 6,000 comic book] titles; films; 5.3 million maps; 6 million works of sheet music; 3 million sound recordings; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings;] the Betts Stradivarius; and the Cassavetti Stradivarius.The Library developed a system of book classification called Library of Congress Classification (LCC), which is used by most US research and university libraries.

The library is open to the general public for academic research and tourists. Only those who are issued a Reader Identification Card may enter the reading rooms and access the collection. The Reader Identification Card is available in the Madison building to persons who are at least 16 years of age upon presentation of a government issued picture identification (e.g. driver's license, state ID card or passport).However, only members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, their staff, Library of Congress staff and certain other government officials can actually remove items from the library buildings. Members of the general public with Reader Identification Cards must use items from the library collection inside the reading rooms only; they are not allowed to remove library items from the reading rooms or the library buildings. Since 1902, libraries in the United States have been able to request books and other items through interlibrary loan from the Library of Congress if these items are not readily available elsewhere. Through this, the Library of Congress has served as a "library of last resort", according to former Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam. but  books lent to other libraries can only be used inside the borrowing library.   

The plague at the entrance to the Thomas Jefferson Building

This is the James Madison Building taken on the same occasion

The statues in front of the main entrance

The roof of the main hall of the Jefferson Building I took this trip





There is a Christmas tree in the middle of the main hall.

The main reading room on the ground floor

The upper part of the main reading room.

Part of the main hall taken in summer

This is one of the two side staircases leading to first floor also taken at my last visit there

The mural at the top of the main staircase to the gallery on the first floor from which we can get a glimpse at the main reading room. The main hall has corridors on the first floor with beautiful murals everywhere.

The corridor on the ground floor





The entrance to the research section

There are mock Medieval arches like those in the ancient churches and monasteries on the basement

Another corridor in the basement. 

The lift is very old fashioned looking.

Under each windows on the first floor corridors are written mottos or
words or wisdom. Each side of the mottos are flanked by murals of a lady, presumably some kind of goddess. Is that because according to Greek myths, the goddess of wisdom Sophia is a lady?

 

This one is "Industry" or hard work and diligence

This one is "Concordia", Latin for harmony.

This one is Patriotism. Behind her is what appears a map of North America. She appears to have an enormous ear

This one is courage.

These are samples of the mottos or words of wisdom ling the corridors on the first floor:

The true university of these days is a collection of books
 There is no works of genius which has not been the delight of mankind

 Tongues in tree books in the running brook sermons in stone and good in everything
 The true Shekinah is man
  Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust
  Art is long and time is fleeting
  The History of the world is the biography of great men
  Books will speak plain when counsellors blanch
  Glory is acquired by virtue but preserved by letters 
  The chief glory of every people arises from its authors
  There is one only good namely knowledge and one only evil namely ignorance
  Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding
  Books must follow sciences and not sciences books
  In books lies the soul of the whole past time
  Words are also actions and actions a kind of words
  Reading maketh a full man conference a ready man and writing an exact man
  Science is organized knowledge
 
I like some of the sayings more than others. The following are what I prefer

 


Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven . How can we fly but with knowledge?       


                    

There is but one temple in the universe and that is the body of man. Indeed, without a body, how can there be a mind?                                     

Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth

Man is one world and hath another to attend him? The world of contemplation? The world of knowledge? The world of imagination? The world of the spirit?

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

It is the mind that makes the man and our vigor is in our immortal soul. Do we have a soul? If so, what is the nature of our soul?

The true university of these days is a collection of our books. Electronic books included?

How charming is divine philosophy. With philosophy, our mind can wander
to the byways and the furthest reaches of our imagination but still
always within the bounds of our reason!

This is the roof of the Jefferson Room in the middle of the first floor

There were mural on each of the four sides to the room, representing certain core American values: the spirit of enterprise, of valor, of industry in all areas of knowledge with the names of the leading figures embodying those value around the relevant paintings at the top centre of the arches..

In the corridors leading to the Jefferson Room there are all kinds of figures of the human imagination

The corridor to the Jefferson Room at the middle of the first floor is lined with these figures

I have no idea what they are nor why they are put there.

This is the exit to the Library and marks the end of my journey. My next stop would be the US Botanic Garden.