Visiting the Library of Congress | Library of Congress Washington DC

Hey there everyone! My name is Eduardo Arroyo, but you can call me Ed, and today I am here visiting the Library of Congress here in Washington, D.C. Yes you guys, you heard that right. Today we are visiting the Library of Congress, the largest library in the entire planet. The goal for today is simple. I want to tell you a little bit more about it and show you around so that you know what you'll find if you choose to visit. So if that interests you, come with me. According to various internet sources, including the Library of Congress website itself, the Library of Congress is in fact the largest library in the entire world. It was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. At first, the main purpose of the library was to serve Congress, hence the name, Library of Congress. And for that reason, and for a long time, the library used to be housed within the Capitol Building. Today, the Library of Congress has its own building, and it is only a street away from the Capitol Building, right over there. I actually made a dedicated video about the Capitol Building, where we learn more about it and its surrounding area, so if you guys are interested, I'll leave it in the description for you guys to check out. So during the early decades of the library, it used to be housed in the Capitol Building. As it kept growing and growing, it needed its own building. Today, the library is not housed in one building, not two, but three buildings here on Capitol Hill. This one is the Thomas Jefferson Building, the quote-unquote main location of the library, and the one where you can schedule timed visits. The James Madison Memorial Building, which is actually right next to the Thomas Jefferson Building, just FYI. And the John Adams Building, which is actually right behind the Thomas Jefferson Building. The main purpose of these two buildings is actual research, so you could potentially go inside, but not really for tourist purposes. Also, I can just imagine the queue must be so long. Sadly, most of the library's collection was lost in a fire during the War of 1812, when British troops set both the White House and the Capitol Building on fire. And as you can remember, the Library of Congress used to be housed within the Capitol. Fortunately, Thomas Jefferson came to the rescue and sold his own personal library to get the ball rolling once again. Now you know why the main building of the Library of Congress is called the Thomas Jefferson Building. The more, you know. As I mentioned before, you can schedule timed visits to enter the Library of Congress. The Jefferson Building, that is. To do that, you go to the Library of Congress website, click on this menu, and go to Visit. And then click on the Time Entry Pass link in the Entry and Visiting section right there. This next screen shows availability of self-guided tours by week, day, and hour. As you can see, a lot of the most popular times are already taken, so make sure to book your time entry a few weeks in advance if you are planning on visiting on a specific date and time. For example, if you wanted to visit at 4PM for whatever reason, you would have to wait until Thursday, so keep that in mind. I scheduled a self-guided tour and it's about time for me to go inside. I probably won't be able to vlog inside either because it's too loud or too quiet, but that only means that I'll be able to share more cool and interesting facts about this place as you enjoy the views of the inside. So let's go! Each working day, the Library receives 15,000 items and adds more than 10,000 of those items to its collection. The Library has offices all around the world to acquire, catalog, and preserve library and research materials from different countries. Approximately half of the Library's book collections are in languages other than English. The Library holds the largest collection of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials outside of Asia. The Library of Congress is also the largest law library in the world, with materials including of course, congressional publications dating back to the United States' founding. Some notable items within the Library's collection include the first book printed in what is now known as the United States, which dates back to 1640. The smallest book in the world, Old King Cole, which is about 1mm in height. In addition to books, the Library also archives audiovisual assets, including movies, such as the movie Shrek, which was inducted in 2020. Lastly, the Library of Congress partnered with UNESCO, as well as other world institutions, to launch the World Digital Library, which began in 2009 and ended in 2021. This collection is still accessible on the Library of Congress website and includes books, manuscripts, maps, and other materials from all around the world. Wow you guys, that was such a cool experience. There's a lot of exhibitions. I saw one of the early Americas, even pre-Columbian America, civil rights movements, and one that surprised me was the fact that they actually had the Thomas Jefferson book collection. That's the one that he sold to the government to restart the Library after it was burnt. I love visiting libraries and large bookstores. Just because I am fascinated with the way they archive and organize their materials, I myself try to do some of that to my own images and video. I try to organize them and archive them in case I want to relive some of those past experiences, but it is nothing like what they do here, especially not at the largest library in the entire world. Just like that you guys, we get to the end of today's video. Hopefully you guys enjoyed. If you liked this video as much as I did, I'm going to ask you to please click on the like button and subscribe to my channel if you want to check out more cool and interesting travel videos just like this one. And just to remind you to always be kind, have an open mind, I'll see you next time.