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  The Library of Congress >> Research Centers Home   
  
Overview: Library of Congress Research Centers
Library of Congress Building Abbreviations
LA = Adams Building | LJ = Jefferson Building | LM = Madison Building
Image of the Library of Congress Main Reading Room

African & Middle Eastern LJ220
The African & Middle Eastern Division Reading Room provides reference and bibliographic services covering more than 70 countries and regions, from South Africa to Morocco to the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. In most cases, materials written in the vernacular languages of these areas must be accessed through the African & Middle Eastern Division reading room.

American Folklife Center LJG49
The Folklife Reading Room of the American Folklife Center is the access point for researchers interested in folklife. The ethnographic collections of the Archive of Folk Culture, part of the American Folklife Center, are international in scope and include over one million photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and moving images.

Asian LJ150
The Asian Division Reading Room serves as the gateway to material in all languages of Asia, about Asian American Studies, the Asian Diaspora, and the Pacific Islands. In most cases, materials written in Asian languages must be accessed through the Asian Division reading room.

Business Reference Services LA508
Business Reference Services is the starting point for conducting research in all major business subjects including industry information, commerce, statistics, banking, insurance, economics, finance, investment, and marketing. Reference specialists assist in formulating research search strategies and in gaining access to the information and materials contained in the Library's collections.

Children's Literature Center LJ100
The Children's Literature Center provides reference services to individuals and organizations concerned with young people. It organizes programs, exhibitions, and issues publications.

European LJ250
The European Division Reading Room is the primary public access point for researchers seeking to use the vast collections of the Library of Congress relating to European countries, including the Russian-speaking areas of Asia. Researchers interested in Spain and Portugal should contact the Hispanic Division reading room; those interested in the United Kingdom and Ireland should consult reference librarians in the Main Reading Room. The European Division Reading Room has custody of current, unbound Slavic and Baltic periodicals and has available recent issues of Western European newspapers and periodicals and collections of pamphlets and "grey literature."

Geography & Map LMB01
In the Geography and Map Division Reading Room, researchers can access the largest and most comprehensive cartographic collection in the world, including more than 4.5 million maps and 60,000 atlases as well as a large number of cartographic materials in other formats.

Hispanic LJ240
The Hispanic Division Reading Room serves as the primary access point for research relating to those parts of the world encompassing the geographical areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage. Luso-Hispanic, Iberian, and Caribbean materials can be accessed through the Hispanic Division or through the Main Reading Room.

Law Library LM201
The mission of the Law Library is to provide research and legal information to the U.S. Congress, U.S. Federal Courts and Executive Agencies, and to offer reference services to the public. It contains the world's largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides digitized information with online databases and guides to legal information worldwide.

Local History & Genealogy LJG42
The Local History & Genealogy Reading Room serves one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications. The Library's genealogical collection began as early as 1815 when Thomas Jefferson's library was acquired.

Main Reading Room: Humanities and Social Science LJ100
The historic Main Reading Room is, through its catalogs, the primary entrance into the Library's research collections and the principal reading room for work in the social sciences and humanities.

Manuscript LM101
The Manuscript Division Reading Room provides access to more than fifty million items in eleven thousand separate collections. It includes some of the greatest manuscript treasures of American history and culture and supports scholarly research in many aspects of political, cultural, and scientific history.

Microform LJ139B
The Microform Reading Room has custody of and provides access to the general microform collection of the Library of Congress. Other specialized reading rooms, such as Law and Manuscript or Area Studies reading rooms, also contain large microform collections.

Motion Picture & Television LM336
The Motion Picture and Television Reading Room provides access and information services for the motion picture and television collections to an international community of film and television professionals, archivists, scholars, and researchers.

Newspaper & Current Periodical LM133
The Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room provides public service to material in the Serial & Government Publications Division: current & retrospective newspapers (U.S. and foreign), current periodicals, and government documents (including U.S. Federal Depository, United Nations, and European Union publications). Collections include material published in all Western European languages.

Performing Arts (Music, Theater, Dance) LM113
The collections available in the Performing Arts Reading Room of the Music Division number close to eight million items. These include classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, microforms, and copyright deposits. The Library of Congress is unique among national libraries because it embraces the complete range of music--newly commissioned and created works are performed and the original manuscripts are placed in the collections for the use of succeeding generations.

Prints & Photographs LM339
The Prints and Photographs Reading Room provides public access to more than 13.6 million images, including photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings.

Rare Book and Special Collections LJ239
The unique materials of the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room include books, broadsides, pamphlets, theater playbills, title pages, prints, posters, photographs, and medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.

Recorded Sound Reference Center LM113
The Recorded Sound Reference Center is the public access place for the Library's audio collections, which reflect the entire history of sound technology, from wax cylinders, through LP's and tape, to compact audio discs.

Science LA508
The Science and Technology Division's Reading Room is the public access point for the Library's scientific and technical materials. The reading room supports access to information in all areas of science and technology. The exceptions are clinical medicine and technical agriculture, the subject specialties of the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library, respectively.


The Library of Congress >> Research Centers Home
April 26, 2004
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