The United States Senate Library 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 ...

of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. The

United States Senate Librarian The United States Senate Librarian is the chief librarian of the United States Senate Library. The Senate Librarian reports to the Secretary of the United States Senate. *George S. Wagner, 1871—1875 *George F. Dawson, 1875—1879 *P. J. Pier ...

manages the Senate Library, which is under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate. Leona I. Faust has been the Senate Librarian since 2009. The Library is located in the

Russell Senate Office Building The Russell Senate Office Building is the oldest of the United States Senate office buildings. Designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, it was built from 1903 to 1908 and opened in 1909. It was named for former Senator Richard Russe ...

in SR-B15.

History

The Senate Library was founded during the 2nd Congress (1791–1792) after a resolution directing the Secretary to "procure and deposit in his office, the laws of several states" for use by senators. In the early years leading to the library officially becoming established, the library suffered two fires. The first fire occurred during the

burning of Washington The Burning of Washington was a British invasion of Washington City (now Washington, D.C.), the capital of the United States, during the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812. It is the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a ...

in 1814 when the British attacked

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during the

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and sacked Capitol Hill. To replace the collection,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

offered his private library at cost. Jefferson's 6,487 volumes formed the heart of the new

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

collection. The second fire occurred in 1851 and destroyed all but 20,000 volumes in the Library of Congress collection. The damage to the Library of Congress collections prompted the Senate to preserve its records by designating space in the

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

for the Senate Library. The Senate decided to procure and install steel shelving to replace wooden shelving to fireproof their collection from future damage. Secretaries oversaw the early collection of the library which included printed bills and resolutions,

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reports and other Senate documents. William Hickey, Chief Clerk of the Senate (1855–1866), had been collecting 10 copies of every Senate document since 1824. Starting to accumulate a vast collection, Hickey lobbied for a library to manage and preserve all of these documents for use by the Senate. Despite various attempts to establish a library, it was not until February 11, 1870, that the Senate designated three rooms (S-331, S-332, and S-333) in the Library of Congress for the Senate Library. In 1871, George S. Wagner was appointed the first Senate Librarian. Wagner has the task of organizing Hickey's collection for better access and for preservation purposes (many of the materials were in fragile condition). By 1890, the collection was exceeding 98,000 volumes and was outgrowing the space in the library. Many rare documents and manuscripts were in a basement storage under poor conditions. Some of the materials in this suffering storage place were signed by

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. In 1902, the library was appropriated funds to build steel storage shelves. The new storage space was housed in the Senate attic (S-410 and S-419). In 1999, the Senate Library moved from the Capitol to the Russell Senate Office Building. The library now resides in SR-B15.

Mission, materials, and services

The Library serves present and former senators, member and committee staff, Senate leadership, and Senate officers. The mission of the Senate Library has changed over time, as a focus has changed from the collection and storage of Senate documents to providing legislative, historic, legal, business and general reference materials. The Senate Library aims to carry out its mission in an accurate, prompt, and nonpartisan manner. The Library's book collection comprises 14,000 volumes of works on history, geography, biography, politics and law and has material dating back to the early 19th century. Many were signed by the author or previous owner. The Senate Library receives the

United States Congressional Serial Set The United States Congressional Serial Set began in 1817 as the official collection of reports and documents of the United States Congress. The collection was published in a " serial" fashion, hence its name. It has been described as the "nation's m ...

, which contains over 15,000 congressional reports and documents since 1817. The Library added a legislative status database in 1975. Calls for this service have peaked at 80,000 per year. Today, the library serves as many people in one day as it did in one month in 1964, nearly 60,000 inquiries per year, based primarily on the growth in Senate staff from 2,000 in 1964 to more than 7,000 today. The Senate Library has a

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, study carrels, computers, and a scanning and

microform Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...

center. The Library's microfilm collection includes over one million microform and over 6,000 microfilm reels. Library tours and scheduled throughout the year and personalized tours can be made by request. The Library makes deliveries twice daily to offices with requested information. The authorized library staff is 22 people, including the Librarian and 13 other professionals

Notes

References

* Faust, L. ''UNUM: Newsletter of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate'', January/February 1999, Vol 3, Issue 1.
''THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SENATE LIBRARY (Senate - September 19, 1996)'', Congressional Record, Library of Congress''A Brief Construction History of the Capital (The Architect of the Capital)''
* United States Senate Library, S. Pub. 109-21. {{coord, 38.8928, -77.0069, display=title, region:US-DC_type:landmark Archives in the United States Agencies of the United States Congress Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. United States Capitol grounds

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Libraries in Washington, D.C.

History

Mission, materials, and services

See also

Notes

References