America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000 (review)

The bicentennial celebration of a national library's founding is a joyous commemoration. The Library of Congress, while not the earliest, is one of the most venerable among a number of such libraries. Though it bears the name of the Congress, it is, of course, the de facto national library of the United States. According to its press release, its "119 million books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and digital materials in some 460 languages" make it "the largest repository of knowledge in the world," accessible to all Americans and many throughout the world, especially through its electronic resources.