Library of Congress: Difference between revisions

Librarian Young's successor [[Herbert Putnam]] held the office for forty years of the [[20th century]] from 1899 to 1939. Two years after he took office, the library became the first in the United States to hold one million volumes.<ref name="loc history"/> Putnam focused his efforts to make the library more accessible and useful for the public and for other libraries. He instituted the [[interlibrary loan]] service, transforming the Library of Congress into what he referred to as a "library of last resort".<ref name="interlibrary loan">{{cite web |title=Interlibrary Loan (Collections Access, Management and Loan Division, Library of Congress) |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/loan/ |date=October 25, 2007 |publisher=Library of Congress website |access-date=December 4, 2007 |archive-date=November 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071129021335/http://www.loc.gov/rr/loan/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Putnam also expanded library access to "scientific investigators and duly qualified individuals", and began publishing [[primary sources]] for the benefit of scholars.<ref name="loc history"/>

Putnam expanded foreign acquisitions as well, including the 1904 purchase of a 4,000-volume library of Indica, the 1906 purchase of G. V. Yudin's 80,000-volume Russian library, the 1908 Schatz collection of early opera [[libretto]]s, and the early 1930s purchase of the Russian Imperial Collection, consisting of 2,600 volumes from the library of the [[Romanov family]] on a variety of topics. Collections of [[Hebraica]], Chinese, and Japanese works were also acquired. On one occasion, Congress initiated an acquisition: in 1929 Congressman [[Ross Collins]] (D-Mississippi) gained approval for the library to purchase [[Otto Vollbehr]]'s collection of [[incunabula]] for $1.5 million. This collection included one of three remaining perfect [[vellum]] copies of the [[Gutenberg Bible]].<ref name="loc history"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Snapp |first=Elizabeth |title=The Acquisition of the Vollbehr Collection of Incunabula for the Library of Congress |journal=The Journal of Library History |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=April 1975 |pages=152–161 |publisher=University of Texas Press |jstor=25540624}} (restricted access)</ref>

*[[John W. Kluge Center|Kluge Center]], started with a grant of $60 million from [[John W. Kluge]] in 2000, brings international scholars and researchers to use library resources and to interact with policymakers and the public. It hosts public lectures and scholarly events, provides endowed Kluge fellowships, and awards the [[Kluge Prize|Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity]] (now worth $1.5 million), the first Nobel-level international prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences (subjects not included in the [[Nobel awards]]);<ref>{{Cite web |title=The John W. Kluge Center – Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/ |website=Loc.gov |access-date=September 22, 2015 |archive-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920064635/http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

*[[Open World Leadership Center]], established in 2000; by 2015 this program administered 23,000 professional exchanges for emerging post-Soviet leaders in Russia, Ukraine, and other successor states of the former [[USSR]]. Open World began as a Library of Congress project, and later was established as an independent agency in the legislative branch.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Founding Chairman {{!}} OpenWorld |url=http://www.openworld.gov/about-us/founding-chairman |website=openworld.gov |access-date=September 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905053401/http://www.openworld.gov/about-us/founding-chairman |archive-date=September 5, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

*[[National Audio-Visual Conservation Center]] opened in 2007 at a 45-acre site in [[Culpeper, Virginia]], established with a gift of more than $150 million by the [[Packard Humanities Institute]], and $82.1 million in additional support from Congress.