The US Library of Congress has been in the news lately due to a controversial move made by the House of Representatives to move some of the powers of the Librarian of Congress to the office of the President. The vote  has been seen by much of the library community as an attempt to protect the interests of copyright holders.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t know much about the Library of Congress, which holds over 160 million items and is the largest library in the world. The collection includes Lewis & Clark’s maps, the original draft of “Rhapsody in Blue”, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and over 140,000 comic books. The video below offers a quick tour of the library and their mission to provide “meaning and context to the human condition.”

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

2 Thoughts on "The World’s Largest Library"

Thank you! What a contrast. His “Night and Fog” was shown to 8th graders in Catholic schools in the US for years.

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