ABOUT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800, during the Presidency of John Adams, to provide members of the United States Congress with the legal and other documentary resources necessary to fulfill their public duties. With the successive enlargement of its holdings over the past two centuries, the Library of Congress has become the largest library in the world.
When invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building in 1814, burning and pillaging the Library's original collection, the Library of Congress purchased Thomas Jefferson's eclectic, 6,487-volume library - the most important collection of books in the United States at the time. By opening its collections to the arts, literature and the sciences, the Library inaugurated an important shift toward a comprehensive collecting policy. In 1870, the new copyright law charged the Library with responsibility for the registration of all copyrighted materials, ensuring a regular flood of books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints, and photographs, and making the Library of Congress a principal repository of American creativity. The opening of the Jefferson Building in 1897 was further evidence of this creativity and it immediately became a prized national monument.
During the 20th century, the Library of Congress has become a center for scholarship, collecting research materials in many media and in most subjects from throughout the world in more that 460 languages; a public institution that is open to everyone over high school age; a government library that is heavily used by the executive branch and the judiciary; a national library for the blind and physically handicapped; an outstanding law library; one of the world's largest providers of bibliographic data and products; a center for the commissioning and performance of chamber music; the home of the nation's poet laureate; the sponsor of exhibitions and of musical, literary, and cultural programs that reach across the nation and the world; a research center for the preservation and conservation of library materials; and the world's largest repository of maps, atlases, printed and recorded music, motion pictures and television programs.
With the creation of the national digitial library in 1994, the Library of Congress has made an ever-expanding selection of its holdings available to the global community. In so doing, the Library of Congress continues to act upon Jefferson's belief in the power of knowledge and the direct link between knowledge and the fulfillment and maintenance of a democratic society.
For more information : http://www.loc.gov/about/index.html
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE
Heir to the first Royal Library founded in 1368 by Charles V, the National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) has grown continually over the centuries, most notably by its designation in 1537 as the legal repository for printed works. Today the library holds some 31 million documents in all formats, including books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, musical scores, sound recordings, video and multimedia, seals, coins and antiquities.
Since 1997, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France's digital library, Gallica, has enhanced France's scientific patrimony by providing digital access to more than 75 thousand printed documents and 80 thousand images. Over one million documents are consulted on Gallica each month.
To Learn More :
Get to Know the Bibliothèque Nationale de France : http://www.bnf.fr/pages/zNavigat/frame/connaitr.htm
Collections and Departments : http://www.bnf.fr/pages/zNavigat/frame/collections.htm