Books are often a subject addressed in this blog. In that context I thought the following was interesting.
"The Library of Congress was established on this date in 1800. President John Adams signed legislation to move the United States capital from Philadelphia to Washington; included in that legislation was an order to establish a library that would contain “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress — and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein.” The first catalog listed 964 books and nine maps.
The
library was originally housed in the Capitol Building, but was destroyed, along
with the Capitol, by British soldiers in 1814. Former president Thomas Jefferson
offered to sell his extensive and eclectic library to the government, and they
took him up on it. They paid him about $24,000 for his collection of nearly
6,500 books, which he had been building for half a century: “putting by
everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable
in every science.”
In 1870,
Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford established the copyright law,
requiring that every copyright applicant send the library two copies of their
work. It’s no wonder that the Library quickly outgrew its original home in the
Capitol. In 1886, Congress approved the construction of a new building
dedicated solely to housing the collection. The Main Building was joined by the
Art Deco-style John Adams Building (1939), named to honor the president who
established the library. Then came the James Madison Memorial Building in 1980;
that same year, the Main Building was renamed the Thomas Jefferson Building.
The
library receives about 15,000 new items every workday. Its collection includes
17 million books, and millions of maps, photographs, films, recordings, and
drawings, in 470 languages. The Law Library alone — which supplies Congress
with information on laws from all over the world — contains 2.8 million
volumes. "Today's Writer's Almanac
Takk for alt,
Al
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