Library of Congress

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, a vast trove of information that contains millions of books, maps, manuscripts, periodicals, photographs, sound and video recordings, rare instruments, and is one of the most remarkable structures on Capitol Hill. In all, the library houses about 138 million items and has a permanent staff of 3,700 employees.

General Information

The principle behind the Library of Congress is simple: “universality,” the idea that all knowledge is useful. Impressive in scale and composition, the Baroque and Neoclassical interior, the Main Reading Room, which looks like a colony of ants collecting 29 million books. A Visitor Assistance Center and a center that organizes tours of the reading rooms are located in the Jefferson Building directly behind the Capitol.