America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000 (review)

America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress, 1800-2000. By James Conway. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, in association with the Library of Congress, 2000. xiii, 226 pp. $39.95. ISSN 0732-3257.

The bicentennial celebration of a national library's founding is a joyous commemoration. The Library of Congress, while not the earliest, is one of the most venerable among a number of such libraries. Though it bears the name of the Congress, it is, of course, the de facto national library of the United States. According to its press release, its "119 million books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and digital materials in some 460 languages" make it "the largest repository of knowledge in the world," accessible to all Americans and many throughout the world, especially through its electronic resources.

The Library has produced a number of brief histories and authorized splendidly illustrated coffee table books for collectors. This very readable volume reflects a conjunction of a popularized text similar to David C. Mearns's The Story Up to Now: The Library of Congress, 1800-1946 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1947); the variety of quality illustrations in a work like The Library of Congress: The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building (New York: W. W. Norton, in association with the Library of Congress, 1997); and the shorter features of Civilization, the Library's own current journal. James Conway--writer, editor, and journalist--has preserved a rare balance in this short book designed for general readers whose curiosity has been piqued by the Library's bicentenary occurring in the millennial year. They will not be disappointed.

Beginning with a testimonial essay by Edmund Morris, "One Writer's Library," that reveals personal delights of the depth and breadth of the Library's collections, the book consists of eight chapters that average about twenty-five pages each, of which possibly one third or more are well-produced color and black-and-white illustrations of photographs, prints, drawings, and paintings. These are accompanied by full explanatory captions. The chapters generally follow the tenure of the Librarians of Congress, and one is devoted to each, beginning with chapter 3, "The Crystal Fountain (1861-1896)," the years of Ainsworth R. Spofford. Realistic appraisals of the librarians include the circumstances of their appointments, some of them controversial.

While this handsome volume focuses on an interesting narrative dealing with the general development of the Library, particularly in the later chapters the author uses sidebars and parallel two-column smaller typeface sections to underscore noteworthy acquisitions, special collections, and unusual features. This contrasts with the primary single-column arrangement. Conway strives to present each era of the Library in the context of its time and its librarian and does a good job within the limitations of the project. A bibliography of some 150 source items, including scholarly and popular treatments as well as statements of recent Librarians of Congress, precedes the seven-page, double-column index.

Library historians will especially appreciate the treatment of the last three librarians--L. Quincy Mumford (1954-74), Daniel J. Boorstin (1975-87), and James H. Billington (1987-present)--about whom less has been written in summary assessment. The only professionally trained librarian in the Library's history was followed by historians of the Colonial American experience and discoveries, and of Russian history and revolutionary movements. If the first brought modern professional practice and organization to the fore, the latter two brought something of the "love of learning and a scholar's appreciation of the importance of libraries and of the unique contribution of the Library of Congress to American life" (139). The last two Librarians especially have brought the Library's resources from the stacks and file cabinets to a greater variety of users and to the public at large. Boorstin's interest in the Republic of Letters led to the American Memory...