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#ThomasJefferson, #AinsworthRandSpofford, #ArchivesofNation; LibraryofCongress Washington, Apr 4 (Canadian-Media): The Library of Congress (LOC), one of the biggest libraries in the world, celebrated its 217th birthday earlier this week, media reports said.  Library of Congress. Image credit: Twitter Handle LOC, the research library that officially serves the United States (US) Congress, is the oldest federal cultural institution in the US and is the de facto national library of the United States. Created on April 24, 1800 it was originally as a legislative library for members of Congress to access documents. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson believed that in order to do a good job, Congress should have information on as many topics as possible . In the beginning there were over 900 documents, which quickly grew to around 3,000. War of 1812 and British invasion resulted in destruction of the library and its contents in 1814. In 1851 about two-thirds of the library was destroyed by a fire. In 1870 Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress created Copyright Law which required that anything copyrighted needed to have two copies placed in the library. As of 2012 there were over 35.8 million books not including manuscripts, maps, sheet music, and other documents which individually number in the millions as well. LOC is in effect the archives of the nation. (Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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