Top of page

General Information

Versión en español

The Library of Congress occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill. The Thomas Jefferson Building (1897) is the original separate Library of Congress building. (The Library began in 1800 inside the U.S. Capitol.) The John Adams Building was built in 1938 and the James Madison Memorial Building was completed in 1981. Other facilities include the High Density Storage Facility (2002) at Fort Meade, Md., and the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation (2007) in Culpeper, Va.

View information for visitors: Library hours, directions, maps and more.

Collections

Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection includes millions cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; millions of manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.

Year 2023 at a Glance

In fiscal year 2023 (October 2022 to September 2023), the Library of Congress ...

Responded to more than 681,000 reference requests from Congress, the public and other federal agencies, including the direct use of Congressional Research Service reports;

Issued more than 441,500 copyright registrations and recorded 16,600 documents containing 978,900 works;

Circulated more than 24.5 million copies of braille, audio and large-print items to blind and print disabled patrons;

Circulated 249,600 physical items for use inside and outside the Library;

Placed more than 8 million items under inventory control in its preservation facilities at Fort Meade and Cabin Branch;

Recorded more than 178.2 million items in its collections, including:

  • more than 25.77 million cataloged books in the Library of Congress classification system
  • more than 15.99 million items in the nonclassified print collections, including books in large type and raised characters, incunabula (books printed before 1501), monographs and serials, music, bound newspapers, pamphlets, technical reports and other printed material
  • more than 138.5 million items in the nonclassified (special) collections, including:
    • 4.3 million audio materials (discs, tapes, talking books and other recorded formats)
    • 78.5 million manuscripts
    • 5.8 million maps
    • 17.5 million microforms
    • 1.8 million moving images
    • 8.2 million items of sheet music
    • 15.7 million photographs
    • 870,000 posters, prints and drawings
    • 1.4 million other items (broadsides, photocopies, etc.)
    • 2 million machine-readable items

Maintained a staff of 3,238 permanent employees; and

Operated with a total budget authority of $875.4 million, including $828.5 million in appropriations and $46.9 million in offsetting receipts authority.