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The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., that serves as the library and research service of the U.S. Congress and the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, the library is the United States's oldest federal cultural institution. The library is housed in three elaborate buildings on Capitol Hill. It also maintains a conservation center in Culpeper, Virginia. The library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its collections contain approximately 173 million items, and it has more than 3,000 employees. Its collections are "universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages". Congress moved to Washington, D.C., in 1800 after holding sessions for eleven years in the temporary national capitals in New York City and Philadelphia. In both cities, members of the U.S. Congress had access to the sizable collections of the New York Society Library and the Library Company of Philadelphia. In Washington, the library was housed in the United States Capitol for almost all of the 19th century. Much of the library's original collection was burnt by British forces during the War of 1812. Congress then purchased Thomas Jefferson's entire personal collection of 6,487 books to restore its own collection. Over the next few years, its collection slowly grew; in 1851, another fire broke out in the Capitol chambers. This destroyed a large amount of the collection, including many of Jefferson's books. After the American Civil War, the importance of the Library of Congress for legislative research increased and there was a campaign to purchase replacement copies for volumes for its lost books. The library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works, and deposit of two copies of books, maps, illustrations, and diagrams printed in the United States. The Library also built its collections through acquisitions and donations. Between 1888 and 1894, Congress constructed and moved the collection to a large adjacent library building, now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building, across the street from the Capitol. Two more adjacent library buildings, the John Adams Building, built in the 1930s, and the James Madison Memorial Building, built in the 1970s, hold expanded parts of the collection and provide space for additional library services. The library's primary mission is to research inquiries made by members of Congress, which is carried out through the Congressional Research Service. It also houses and oversees the United States Copyright Office. The library is open to the public for research, although only high-ranking government officials and library employees may borrow (i.e., temporarily take custody of) books and materials. History 1800–1851: Origin and Jefferson's contribution James Madison of Virginia is credited with the idea of creating a congressional library, first making such a proposition in 1783. Madison's initial proposal was rejected at the time, but represented the first real introduction of the idea of a congressional library. In the years after the Revolutionary War, the Philadelphia Library Company and New York Society Library served as surrogate congressional libraries whenever Congress held session in those respective cities. The Library of Congress was established on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed an act of Congress, which also provided for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington. Part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 "for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress ... and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them." Books were ordered from London, and the collection consisted of 740 books and three maps, which were housed in the new United States Capitol. President Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. On January 26, 1802, he signed a bill that allowed the president to appoint the librarian of Congress and established a Joint Committee on the Library to regulate and oversee it. The new law also extended borrowing privileges to the president and vice president. In August 1814, after defeating an American force at Bladensburg, British forces under the command of George Cockburn proceeded to occupy Washington. In retaliation for acts of destruction by American troops in the Canadas, Cockburn ordered his men to burn numerous government buildings throughout the city. Among the buildings targeted was the Library of Congress, which contained 3,000 congressional volumes at the time, most of which were destroyed in the burning. These volumes had been held in the Senate wing of the Capitol; one of the few congressional volumes to survive was a government account book of receipts and expenditures for 1810. The volume was taken as a souvenir by Cockburn, whose family returned it to the United States in 1940. Within a month, Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his large personal library as a replacement. Congress accepted his offer in January 1815, appropriating $23,950 to purchase his 6,487 books. Some members of the House of Representatives opposed the outright purchase, including New Hampshire representative Daniel Webster. He wanted to return "all books of an atheistical, irreligious, and immoral tendency". Jefferson had spent 50 years accumulating a wide variety of books in several languages, and on subjects such as philosophy, history, law, religion, architecture, travel, natural sciences, mathematics, studies of classical Greece and Rome, modern inventions, hot air balloons, music, submarines, fossils, agriculture, and meteorology. He had also collected books on topics not normally viewed as part of a legislative library, such as cookbooks. But, he believed that all subjects had a place in the Library of Congress. He remarked: I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer. Jefferson's collection was unique in that it was the working collection of a scholar, not a gentleman's collection for display. With the addition of his collection, which doubled the size of the original library, the Library of Congress was transformed from a specialist's library to a more general one. His original collection was organized into a scheme based on Francis Bacon's organization of knowledge. Specifically, Jefferson had grouped his books into Memory, Reason, and Imagination, and broke them into 44 more subdivisions. The library followed Jefferson's organization scheme until the late 19th century, when librarian Herbert Putnam began work o.... Discover the Library Of Congress popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Library Of Congress books.