*Photos only

Word Problems

http://www.loc.gov/about/

1. If each book in the library of congress is eight inches in length, and if you stacked the books end to end, what would be the length of the books altogether? Inches

2. If there are 29 million books, 2.7 million recording, 12 million photo graphs, 4.8 million graphs and, 58 million manuscripts. What would the probability be if you selected the 12 million photographs? 
3. If the library has three buildings and each building has nine million, three hundred thousand, thirty-three hundreds books. How many pages altogether would all the books have in the three buildings?
   (Help) If each book has 321 pages.

Answers to Word Problem

Scavenger  Hunt

Use the following web sites to find the answers to the scavenger hunt questions.

http://www.loc.gov/about/

http://www.loc.gov/about/generalinfo.html

http://www.loc.gov/about/history/

1. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world so how many million items does the Library have?

2. How many approximate miles are in the Library of Congress?

3. The Library began in ______ inside the U.S. Capitol.

4. How many internal divisions does the Library have?

5. Who gave the money to build the original Library in the Capitol building? 

6. Where was the second Library put after the first was burnt down?

Answers to Scavenger  Hunt

1. The Library has 28 million books and 2.6 million recording.

2. The first building of the library was built in 1991

3. They put the second building in Washington’s old house

4. In 1888 General Thomas Lincoln Casey was placed in charge of construction of the Library.

5. Spofford convinced Congress of the need for a new building

        The Library of Congress was established by an act of congress in the 1800. President John Adams signed a bill providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington .  The legislation described a reference library for congress only, containing “such books as may be necessary for the use of congress-and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein…” The library was running well in the Capitol Building until the British burned it down.  Then Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement with all his books even though most of his books didn’t consist of just books on the congress.  
        In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson ’s offer to appropriate 23,950 dollars for his 6,487 books, and the foundation was laid for a great national library.   Anisworth Spofford, Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897, applied Jefferson ’s Philosophy on a grand scale and built the library into a national institution.  Spofford was a responsible for the copyright law of 1870, which required all copyright applicants to send to the library two copies of their work.  This resulted in a flood of books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints, and photographs.  Facing a shortage in bookshelf space at the capitol, Spofford authorized a competition to design plans for the new library.  
        In 1888, General Thomas Lincoln Casey, Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, was placed in charge of construction.  His Chief assistants were Bernard R. Green, who was intimately involved with the building until his death in 1914.  Beginning in 1892, a new architect, Edward Pearce Casey, the son of General Casey, Began to supervise the interior work, including sculptural and painted decoration by more than fifty American artists. 
        When the library of Congress building opened its doors to the public on November 1, 1897, it was hailed as a glorious national monument and the “largest, the costliest, and the safest” library building in the world.  The Library of Congress occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill. The Thomas Jefferson Building (1897) is the original separate Library of Congress building. (The Library began in 1800 inside the U.S. Capitol.) The John Adams Building was built in 1938 and the James Madison Memorial Building was completed in 1981.  All these buildings were built after the regular capitol building was burnt down.
        Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 130 million items includes more than 29 million cataloged books and other print materials in 460 languages; more than 58 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America ; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.

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Answers

Answer to Math Word Problem.

1. 240,000,000

2. 8.875

3. 8,987,999,679

    

Return to questions

Answers to Scavenger Hunt

1. 130 million items

2. 530 miles

3. 1800

4. 6

5. Legislation 

6. Thomas Jefferson’s house

Return to questions

1. False  29 million and 2.7 million

2. False  1800

3. False Jefferson’s old house

4. True

5. True

Return to questions

Citation

  Billington, James. About the library. Library of Congress. 07 Feb. 2006 <http://www.loc.gov/about/>.