Library of Congress Home Page

Welcome to our new edition of Celebrating Books for the year 2000, a year that marks the Bicentennial of the Library of Congress. In developing our list for the Bicentennial year, we decided to take a tip from poet and former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish: we want to reveal "the Library in action -- not what it possesses only, but what it does with what it possesses." To that end, this year we have published four books that not only illuminate the history and collections of the Library of Congress but also show the Library in action.

America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000 tells how the Library of Congress expanded from a small collection of books housed in the U.S. Capitol to the largest library in the world. James Conaway's discerning text traces the evolution of the Library of Congress and the relationship between the Librarians of Congress and the U.S. Congress they have served.

Thomas Jefferson: Genius of Liberty examines the life and times of one of the founders of the Library of Congress from a new perspective. Copiously illustrated, Thomas Jefferson contains the largest assemblage of Jefferson documents from the Library's collections ever reproduced in one volume and is also the companion volume to a Bicentennial exhibition about Jefferson.

To help visitors discover the Library and its collections, we have published a new guidebook, our first in more than ten years. The Nation's Library: The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. is an artful combination of text, maps, and color illustrations filled with information about the Library's buildings, collections, and programs.

Just for fun, we decided to take a lively look at the art and architecture of one of the most beautifully decorated buildings in the United States: the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet, with its creative combination of architectural terms and images joined by a colorful alphabet drawn from the Library's collections, defines many of the out-of-the-ordinary architectural details of the Jefferson Building.

I hope you will enjoy our new Bicentennial books and will also take the time to explore our growing backlist of award-winning titles. Happy reading!