É a máis antiga institución cultural federal do país. Segundo John Cole, trátase da meirande e máis internacional biblioteca do mundo. Atribúelle estas características polos seus grandes e influentes líderes, como Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–97), Herbert Putnam (1899–1939), Luther Evans (1945–53) e James H. Billington (1987–). Cole dixo que todos eles "afirmaron e agrandaron o concepto de Thomas Jefferson de que a Biblioteca do Congreso é unha institución nacional que debería ser universal no seu alcance e dispoñible para todos".[1]
Localizada en tres edificios do Capitol Hill e do Campus Packard Campus de Virxinia, é descrita como a meirande biblioteca do mundo.[2] Porén, as medicións que o afirman teñen unha utilidade limitada por mor da gran variedade de xeitos de catalogación empregados polas institucións.
Símbolos
Logo da biblioteca
Selo da Biblioteca
Notas
↑John Young Cole, "The library of congress becomes a world library, 1815-2005", Libraries & culture (2005) 40#3: 385-398.
Aikin, Jane. "Histories of the Library of Congress." Libraries & the Cultural Record (2010) 45#1 5-24.
Bisbort, Alan, and Linda Barrett Osborne. The Nation's Library: The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. (Library of Congress, 2000)
Cole, John Young. Jefferson's legacy: a brief history of the Library of Congress (Library of Congress, 1993)
Cole, John Young. "The library of congress becomes a world library, 1815-2005." Libraries & culture (2005) 40#3: 385-398. in Project MUSE
Cope, R. L. "Management Review of the Library of Congress: The 1996 Booz Allen & Hamilton Report," Australian Academic & Research Libraries (1997) 28#1 onlineArquivado 26 de febreiro de 2014 en Wayback Machine.
Mearns, David Chambers. The Story Up To Now: The Library Of Congress, 1800-1946 (1947), detailed narrative
Ostrowski, Carl. Books, Maps, and Politics: A Cultural History of the Library of Congress, 1783-1861 (2004) online
Rosenberg, Jane Aiken. The Nation's Great Library: Herbert Putnam and the Library of Congress, 1899–1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1993)
Shevlin, Eleanor F., and Eric N. Lindquist. "The Center for the Book and the History of the Book," Libraries & the Cultural Record (2010) 45#1 pp 56–69.
Tabb, Winston, et al. "Library of Congress." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (2003) 3: 1593-1612.
Arquitectura
Cole, John Y. e Henry Hope Reed. The Library of Congress: The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building (1998) excerpt and text search
Small, Herbert, and Henry Hope Reed. The Library of Congress: Its Architecture and Decoration (1983)