The Library of Virginia in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, is the

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

agency of the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United Stat ...

. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street, two blocks from the

Virginia State Capitol The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital city of the U.S. state of Virginia. (The first two were Jamestown and Williamsburg.) It houses the oldest elected ...

building. It was formerly known as the Virginia State Library and as the Virginia State Library and Archives. Formally founded by the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

in 1823, the Library of Virginia organizes, cares for, and manages the state's collection of books and official records, many of which date back to the early colonial period. It houses what is believed to be the most comprehensive collection of materials on Virginia government, history, and culture available anywhere. Its research collections contain more than 808,500 bound volumes; 678,790 public documents; 410,330 microforms, including 45,684 reels of microfilmed newspapers; 308,900 photographs and other pictorial materials; 101.8 million manuscript items and records; and several hundred thousand prints, broadsides, and newspapers..

History of the institution

Although the Library of Virginia was officially established January 23, 1823, its history goes back to the collection of materials acquired for official use by the colonial Council and subsequent colonial and state authorities. The first permanent home of the Library was a small room on the top floor of the State Capitol. The state's books and records eventually outgrew this space, and overflow books and documents were then stored in several rented locations across Richmond. In an 1851 survey by the Smithsonian, the library was listed as having 14,000 volumes. In 1892, the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

provided for a new

Virginia State Library The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 an ...

on Capitol Square in what is today known as the Oliver Hill Building. Over the ensuing forty years, the Library again outgrew that building, and in 1940 it moved to its third location at the edge of Capitol Square between 11th and Governor Streets (today the Patrick Henry Executive Office Building). an
''Accompanying four photos''
/ref> It shared this space with the State Law Library, the

Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...

, the Virginia Department of Law, and the Office of the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

. The Library moved to its current location at 800 East Broad Street in 1997. The old library buildings were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2008 and 2005, respectively. The state library houses one of the most comprehensive collections on Virginia. The collection covers Virginia government, history, and culture. The collection focuses on the varied past of the commonwealth, documenting the lives of important and ordinary Virginians and their deeds. The collections include printed material, manuscripts and photographic collections. The Library also supplies research and reference assistance to state officials; consulting services to state and local government agencies and to other Virginia public libraries; administers numerous federal, state, and local grant programs; publishes award-winning books; provides educational programs and resources on Virginia history; and offers exhibitions, lectures, and book-signings.

Programs and publications

Since 1998, the Library of Virginia and the Library of Virginia Foundation have sponsored the annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards honoring outstanding Virginia authors and books about Virginia in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They also present annually a lifetime achievement award, whose past recipients are

Ellen Glasgow Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942 for her novel ''In This Our Life''. She published 20 novels, as well as short stories, to critical ac ...

(1998),

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

(1999),

Anne Spencer Anne Bethel Spencer (born Bannister; February 6, 1882 – July 27, 1975) was an American poet, teacher, civil rights activist, librarian, and gardener. Though she lived outside New York City, the recognized center of the Harlem Renaissance, also ...

(2000),

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

(2001),

Mary Lee Settle Mary Lee Settle (July 29, 1918 – September 27, 2005) was an American writer. She won the 1978 National Book Award for her novel '' Blood Tie''.''Blood_Tie''(1977)._This_novel,_which_received_the_National_Book_Award_in_1978,_deals_with_America ...

(2002),

Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Louis Decimus Rubin Jr. (November 19, 1923 – November 16, 2013) was a noted American literary scholar and critic, writing teacher, publisher, and writer. He is credited with helping to establish Southern literature as a recognized area of stud ...

(2003), George Garrett (2004),

Merrill D. Peterson Merrill Daniel Peterson (31 March 1921 – 23 September 2009) was a history professor at the University of Virginia and the editor of the prestigious Library of America edition of the selected writings of Thomas Jefferson. Peterson wrote several bo ...

(2005),

William Styron William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed fi ...

(2006),

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

(2007),

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the posit ...

(2008),

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Am ...

(2009),

Lee Smith Lee Smith is the name of: Arts, entertainment and media *Lee Smith (fiction author) (born 1944), American author of fiction * Lee Smith (film editor) (born 1960), Australian film editor * Lee Smith (musician) (born 1983), American drummer * Lee Sm ...

(2010), Earl Hamner, Jr. (2011),

Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film ''The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his role ...

(2012), Charles Wright (2013), and

Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the Univers ...

(2014). The Library of Virginia sponsors the annual

Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...

project to honor eight Virginia women, living and dead, who have made extraordinary contributions to the state or to their professions and also the annual African American Trailblazers in Virginia project. Library of Virginia hosts the Virginia Literary Festival. This event attracts authors, publishers, and residents of Virginia. Attendees get the chance to meet new authors as well as well known authors. The library awards seven different literary awards at their annual event. Archives Month focuses on institutions and individuals that have made significant impact on the preservation and accessibility of historical records. In conjunction with the Archive Month the Library of Virginia produces posters commemorating archival and special collections repositories throughout the state. Many archives contribute to the celebration by hosting events. Library of Virginia hosts an ongoing series of Book Talk Series. These book talks feature authors from Virginia and books on the state of Virginia. These are hosted nearly every week and the cover a wide range of topics: from Virginia's role in the founding of the United States to the legacy of the Civil War to the many facets of the civil rights struggle in Virginia. The audience is given the opportunity to listen and interact with a variety of scholars and literary authors. The Library's Virginia Heritage Resource Center offers a series of lectures by researchers and subject specialists showcasing the contents of the library's collection and its potential as a resource for researchers. Library of Virginia offers a variety of workshops each year for anyone who works in library services. These workshops and conferences are designed to help hone skills and develop new approaches. These workshops cover topics such as serving special needs patrons, cataloging databases, and reference services. In 2007 and 2008 work began on the Virginia Memory project, which serves as an extension of the Library of Virginia's online presence. The project launched in 2009 and has four components, the Library's digital collections, online versions of the Library's exhibitions, an online classroom, and a "reading room" that offers a chronology of Virginia events, articles by Library archivists, and "This Day in Virginia History". The Transcribe program is a collaborative workspace for people to help the Library transcribe documents. In August 2015 the project expanded to include the Document Bank of Virginia, which hosts select documents along with historical context for educational use.

State Librarians of Virginia

During the nineteenth century, Secretaries of the Commonwealth usually oversaw the state library as part of their official duties. *

John Pendleton Kennedy John Pendleton Kennedy (October 25, 1795 – August 18, 1870) was an American novelist, lawyer and Whig politician who served as United States Secretary of the Navy from July 26, 1852, to March 4, 1853, during the administration of President Mi ...

, 1903–1907 * Henry Read McIlwaine, 1907–1934 * Wilmer L. Hall, 1934–1946 * Randolph Warner Church, 1947–1972 * Donald Rucker Haynes, 1972–1986 * Ella Gaines Yates, 1986–1990 * John C. Tyson, 1990–1994 * Nolan T. Yelitch, 1995–2007 * Sandra Gioia Treadway, 2007–present

References

External links

The Library of Virginia
(official site)
Find It Virginia
(official research tool)
Virginia Memory
(digital collections)
The Uncommonwealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia
(blog)
Document Bank of Virginia

Multiple Exposure: Catablog of the Prints and Photographs Collection at the Library of Virginia
(blog)
Virginia Heritage: Guides to Manuscript and Archival Collections in Virginia
* Debra H. Rodman
"Retelling Virginia's Migration History"
''Southern Spaces'', 25 October 2010. A review of an exhibition at the Library of Virginia. {{Coord, 37, 32, 29, N, 77, 26, 2, W, display=title 1823 establishments in Virginia Government agencies established in 1823 Government of Virginia History of Virginia

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

History of the institution

Programs and publications

State Librarians of Virginia

References

Further reading

External links