The Library of Congress

by Allan Fowler

Book Overview

A brief history of the Library of Congress describing its role in disseminating information and in collecting, cataloging, and preserving books and other related materials. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0516201379
• ISBN13: 9780516201375
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Children's Press(CT)
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.5" x 8.7"
• Age Range: 8 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 5

Customer Reviews

Everything kids need to know about the Library of Congress

I had a private little fantasy once upon a time about being locked in overnight in the Library of Congress, where I had reason to believe all the books in the world could be found (including all of the comic books every made). Of course, I had no real idea of what the Library of Congress was like, but it certainly seemed to me to be the greatest place for books since the fabled library of Alexandria was burned. In this look at "The Library of Congress," Allan Fowler tells me more than I ever knew about the real Library of Congress, which was basically that when the library was burned by the British during the War of 1812 Congress purchased Thomas Jefferson's personal library of over 6,0000 books to start over. But Fowler's little volume tells how another fire burned about two-thirds of the library's books in 1851. In addition to the history of the library, such as the three buildings on Capitol Hill that now house the collection, Fowler also tells young readers about what the Library of Congress has to do with copyrights and the classification system that most large libraries use (which replaced the Dewey Decimal System). We also learn about some of the important people who have held the post of the librarian of Congress (the poet Archibald MacLeish and the historian Daniel Boorstin). In addition to the 27 million books you can find there, the Library of Contress also has collections that include journals, letters, original manuscripts, charts, maps, atlases, prints, posters, cartoons, photographs, and 100,000 motion pictures. Fowler points out that it would take more than a lifetime to watch all of the television programs and listen to all the recorded music and radio broadcasts preserved in the Library of Congress. So now I have a new fantasy for basically living in the Library of Congress for the rest of my life. Even though this book is aimed at younger students it contains a lot of information and goes beyond providing an introduction to the top. This is one of the most comprehensive volumes I have seen for this particular age group. Fowler has also done a companion volume in the True Books series on "The Dewey Decimal System," but he could not possibly have as much information in that one as he did here.