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World's Largest Library


I had a general idea about the Library of Congress that it’s a huge library like many others but I didn’t know the fact that Library of Congress is the world’s largest library. And, when I found out about the amount of collections, my jaw dropped!

Library of congress, located in Washington DC, is the world’s library. It was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation.

     Cool Statistics:

ü  Library of Congress has more than 155.3 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves

  •     35 million books and other print materials
  •     3.4 million recordings
  •     13.6 million photographs
  •      5.4 million maps
  •      6.5 million pieces of sheet music
  •      68 million manuscripts
  •      Over 470 foreign languages materials

Other Historical Information:

  • On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes.
  • On January 30,1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.




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Source:
 "Fascinating Facts." [Online] <http://www.loc.gov/about/facts.html>.



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