Summary
Contents
The 35 chapters of Guide to Congress are divided into eight subject areas that cover all aspects of the U.S. Congress. This comprehensive reference offers a complete institutional history of Congress along with insight and analysis shifts in power of the U.S. Senate and House of Represenatives. Specific investigations and outcomes are discussed. Boxed features, tables, and figures and a generous number of photos enhance the topical coverage of this definitive resource on Congress. Also included are selected bibliography and key reference materials: a list of all members of congress who have served since 1789; congressional election results; floor leaders and committee chairs; dates for sessions of congress; women, black, Asian, and Hispanic members; and many more.
Chapter 25: Library of Congress
Chapter 25: Library of Congress
Senators and representatives are fortunate to have at their disposal one of the world’s great repositories of information, the Library of Congress. In 2007 the library owned more than 134 million items, housed in three sprawling buildings on Capitol Hill. Each year about one million people troop through those buildings to use the library or simply to view its architecture or exhibits.
The Library of Congress may be the largest library in the world. Whether it is the greatest is a matter of opinion. There is no standard measurement of library quality, and in measuring greatness it is difficult to compare the library’s treasures, such as Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence or James Madison’s notes from the Constitutional Convention, with, for example, the British Museum’s two signed copies of the Magna Carta.
By any measure the Library of Congress’s collections are unparalleled and of astonishing variety. Although the library does not acquire every book published, it owns works in some 460 languages. About half of its books are not in English.
Besides the Jefferson and Madison items, the library’s most valuable holdings include one of three known perfect copies of the Gutenberg Bible, a set of string instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, a nearly complete set of Mathew Brady’s photographs of the Civil War, and the personal papers of twenty-three presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. (See box, Treasures in the Library of Congress, p. 870.)
The library has the dual role of assisting Congress and serving as the nation’s library. The librarian of Congress oversees both functions, which are carried out by a staff that numbered 3,783 in fiscal 2006. Its appropriation that year was approximately $603.6 million, which included the authority to spend $41.9 million in receipts. The librarian is a presidential appointee, confirmed by the Senate, and reports to Congress and its ten-member Joint Committee on the Library. The thirteenth librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, was appointed in 1987 to succeed another historian, Daniel J. Boorstin.
Dual Role
The library’s dual role causes considerable strain throughout the organization. As a national library it maintains its huge collections and provides central services to authors, scholars, government agencies, and the public, as well as to other libraries throughout the United States to which it provides services in book preservation, interlibrary loans, sales of cataloging cards, and computer linkups.
But Congress established the library for its own use, and senators and representatives are its most privileged users. A 1975 library pamphlet stated the relationship clearly: “The primary role of the Library of Congress is to perform research work for members and committees of Congress.”1
Congressional requests for books or background information are handled by a separate division, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which gives Congress more than 900,000 analytic and research services per year. CRS staffers work in the library’s James Madison Building and in satellite offices in two congressional office buildings. (See “Congressional Research Service,” p. 882.)
The Law Library, containing about 2.5 million items, is the world’s largest, according to the Library of Congress. Among its holdings are congressional publications from the country’s founding years.
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