The History, Humanities, and Social Sciences Reference Collection
Within the Main Reading Room, our large general reference collection emphasizes the subjects we specialize in: history, humanities, and the social sciences. The mission of the Main Reading Room Reference Collection is to provide comprehensive reference and research materials in:
- Humanities, especially religion, philosophy, language, literature, art
- History, with an emphasis on American history
- Social sciences, especially anthropology, criminology, education, political science, psychology, sociology, and women's studies
- As well as in biography, bibliography, and library science
The reference collection, numbering approximately 60 thousand volumes, is located in call number order on both levels of the alcoves. The second level is referred to as the balcony. Because the reference collection is so large, some items are located on deck areas adjacent to the MRR. Deck 7 also houses the Local History and Genealogy (LH&G) reference collection in a separate A-Z call number order, researchers’ study shelves, the National Union Catalog, the indexes to the Congressional Record, as well as some other large sets. Decks 33 and 16 house the Main Card Catalog. To find out what is available on the open shelves of the Main Reading Room for a particular subject or classification number, do a keyword search in the Library’s online catalog, including MRR as part of your search(e.g., MRR adult education, MRR Biog Australia, MRR occult). Reference books are instantly available for your use; they do not have to be requested from the stacks.
An additional ready-reference collection of approximately 800 titles is located in the Reference Assistance Room (RAR) at the entrance to the reading room (LJ 100). These Reference Desk titles are the volumes most frequently consulted by researchers and librarians. The titles include almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, statistical sources, directories, guides to colleges and scholarships, thesauri, poetry indexes, books of quotes, guides to government publications, and directories of periodicals. Similarly, the reference desk collection for Local History and Genealogy Reference Services is also located in the Reference Assistance Room.
The Genealogy and Local History Collection
The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogy and local history publications. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 when Thomas Jefferson's library was purchased. Through generations of international giving, the Library's collections contain more than 50,000 compiled family histories and over 100,000 U.S. local histories. The Library also collects local histories from around the world. Researchers doing foreign research will find strong collections for western Europe, especially the British Isles, Ireland, and Germany.
The reference collection for Local History and Genealogy consists of approximately 10,000 volumes; the majority of the works are in the "C" and "F" classifications covering genealogy and local history. Smaller collections of pertinent materials in other classifications are included (in particular, "D,” "E" and "Z" classes). Standard multi-volume genealogical works, as well as sets of some of the major genealogical and historical periodicals are shelved in the room. The reference collection is located on Deck 7 (access through Alcove 3) of the Main Reading Room. Current Telephone and City Directories are located on Deck 46 behind Alcove 4. Full collection details and more information for first time researchers is available on our Local History and Genealogy Reference Services Guide.
The Biography Alcove
For biographical information readers will find almost 1200 collected biographies in Alcoves 5A, 5B, and 6 of the Main Reading Room. Works shelved here include many U.S. and international "Who's Who" publications. Many other biographical works can be found in the closed stacks and in the Microform Reading Room collections. Consult a reference librarian for help identifying the many online biographical databases.
Congressional Hearings
The Main Reading Room reference collection contains approximately 5,700 volumes of bound Congressional hearings beginning on the curved shelves in the center of the room with the 78th Congress (1943) and continuing on Deck 16 with hearings from the 81st to the 96th Congresses (1950-1980). Most print copies of Congressional hearings are in the Law Library collections. Most Congressional hearings are also available full-text online.
Telephone, City, and Criss-Cross Directories
Current U.S. telephone, city, and criss-cross directories and some current foreign telephone directories are located on Deck 46 adjacent to the Main Reading Room. Earlier editions of these directories do not have call numbers but can be requested using a paper call slip in the Science & Business Reading Room on the 5th floor of the John Adams Building. Include the city and state for U.S. directories plus the type of directory being requested (e.g., city directory, telephone directory, criss-cross directory) and the dates wanted. Some information on which directories the Library has can be found by consulting the directory listings on the Local History and Genealogy Reference Services Bibliography and Guides web page. Foreign city directories are cataloged and have call numbers. A few foreign city directories with call numbers are shelved with the uncataloged foreign directories on Deck 46. Telephone directories in non-Roman alphabets should be requested in the appropriate area studies reading room.
MERC Collections
The Microform and Electronic Resources Center (MERC) is located on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building (LJ139), across the hall from the Main Reading Room. It houses our microform and electronic resource collections, a set of public workstations, and STACKS machines. The MERC Collections include doctoral dissertations, ERIC documents, early American imprints, non-depository U.S. documents, early U.S. city directories, the Library of American Civilization, many serials, college catalogs, Congressional Information Service, American Statistical Index, Statistical Reference Index, and Index to International Statistics documents, Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) reports, and hundreds of commercially published research collections in a wide variety of subjects. The majority of collections are housed on nearby decks and are requested using microform call slips.
Microform Guide Collection
The over 400 published and unpublished guides to the microform collections are housed in the Reference Assistance Room of the Main Reading Room and in the MERC. These guides often represent the only listing of items in these vast collections, which include reproductions as well as original micropublications and contain books, serials, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs, dissertations, government documents, broadcasting transcripts, and a variety of ephemera. . The languages covered include the same languages found in the Library's general hardcopy collection as well as several non-Roman script languages; the range of subjects is as broad, if not broader, than those found in the book collections. Listings of the collections and the guides can be found in A Guide to the Microform Collections in the Researcher and Reference Services Division of the Library of Congress. Information about microform collections and guides can also be found in the Library's online catalog by choosing the "Command Keyword" option and using the search term "microform" in combination with other search terms (e.g. "slave narratives" AND microform). Please consult a reference librarian for assistance.
