Library of Congress, The
The, a national reference library at Washington, D. C. This library was established by act of Congress in 1800; it was destroyed by the burning of the Capitol in 1814. Congress made a new start by purchasing 6,760 volumes of Thomas Jefferson for $23,950. The library has been built up by congressional appropriations, deposits under the copyright law, by gifts and by exchanges. A large number of Smithsonian and government reports are placed at the disposal of the librarian for the last named purpose. The Congressional Library included in 1910 over 2,000,-000 printed books and pamphlets, making it the largest collection in the New World. It is exceeded in size by the British Museum and the national library of Paris only. Among the noteworthy accessions is a set of the great Chinese Encyclopaedia, a copy of which is owned by the British Museum and regarded as one of its most valuable possessions. The Washington set was presented by the Chinese government-possibly as a slight acknowledgment of American courtesy and fair play in returning the undistributed balance of the Boxer indemnity. The American collection is particularly rich in history, political science, in official documents, and in books and pamphlets relating to local and state history. Among the valuable manuscripts lately transferred to our national library from various departments of the government are all the applications for public office received during Washington's administration, the original accounts and vouchers of his expenses in the Revolutionary War, and documents concerning pension claims of soldiers in that war. A file of newspapers is preserved.
The entire collection is open under proper regulations for the use of investigators. It is a consulting, not a loan library. The president, vice-president, senators, representatives, supreme court judges, heads of departments, chief engineers of the army, and certain others, including ex-presidents, may draw books but may not authorize others to do so. Pages attend to delivering desired books to the officials in question. A congressman desiring to consult certain volumes has but to signal a page who will run through a subway and fetch the books to the member's desk or have them sent to his private rooms as may be directed. Under certain restrictions books not needed for immediate use in Washington are loaned to libraries for the use of investigators. The very great number of scientific reports and transactions, the greatest in the world, is thus made widely serviceable.
In 1897 this library was removed from the capitol to a special building erected for the purpose at a cost of $6,500,000. It is the largest and gaudiest library building in the world. It occupies three and three-quarters acres on a site of ten acres. There are eight acres of floor space and about fifty-six miles of shelving. The care of the grounds and building requires the services, this being at public cost, of 127 laborers, gardeners, janitors, and engineers. The copyright bureau employs seventy officials and clerks, the card catalog and index force number thirty, and the library proper has a force of 236 pages, clerks, and assistant librarians,-a total force of nearly 500 persons. The library building is open to the public daily. The main reading room is open from 9:00 A. M. to 10:00 P. M.; and 2:00 P. M. to 10:00 P. M. Sundays and holidays. Investigators are admitted to rooms provided for the purpose. Among national librarians of reputation are Ainsworth R. Spofford and Herbert Putnam.
