The Library of Congress is extending its public hours on Thursday evenings and will feature regular live programming for visitors as part of a new initiative, Live! At the Library, beginning April 2 to showcase the broad range of literature, poetry, art, music, digital collections and other holdings at the national library.

The Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building and all exhibitions at the Library – currently featuring the long fight for women’s voting rights and Rosa Parks’ groundbreaking role in civil rights – will be open for extended hours on Thursday evenings from 5 to 8 p.m. every week. Exhibitions and programs will remain free and open to everyone. The Main Reading Room will be open for research during this time, and visitors and researchers will have the opportunity to register for reader cards. Other selected reading rooms may also be open on Thursday nights as a part of evening programming.

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Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress has acquired the archive of photographer Shawn Walker and his collection of photos, ephemera and audio recordings representing the influential Kamoinge Workshop based in Harlem, the Library announced today.

Founded in New York City in 1963, the Kamoinge Workshop is a collective of leading African American photographers, such as Anthony Barboza, Louis Draper, Adger Cowans, Albert Fenner, Ray Francis, Toni Parks, Herb Randall, Herb Robinson, Beuford Smith and Ming Smith. Walker is a founding member and also served as an archivist, helping to preserve the group’s history.

The Shawn Walker archive contains nearly 100,000 photographs, negatives and transparencies depicting life in Harlem — a pivotal crossroad of African diaspora culture — between 1963 and the present. The Kamoinge collection — generously donated by Walker — consists of nearly 2,500 items, including prints by Kamoinge members such as Barboza, Draper, Smith and others. The Library of Congress worked with the Photography Collections Preservation Project to acquire both the Walker archive and the Kamoinge collection with an electronic finding aid. These materials will join the Library’s other important collections of photography by African Americans such as Gordon Parks, Robert McNeill, Roland Freeman, Dawoud Bey and Walker’s mentor, Roy DeCarava.

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A major gift by philanthropist David Rubenstein will help fund a project to reimagine and enhance the visitor experience for the nearly 2 million people who visit the Library of Congress' Thomas Jefferson Building each year. The goal is to better connect visitors with history and provide better access to the unparalleled collections held by the national library.

Rubenstein, the chairman of the Library’s James Madison Council and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group, will make a lead gift of $10 million to support the visitor experience project.

Rubenstein’s gift will build on the significant public investment Congress has made in the Library’s infrastructure. It will support the strategic plan set by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden to make the Library more user centered for Congress, creators and learners of all ages.

“Literacy is critical to learning and achieving one’s full potential. The Library of Congress plays a unique role in advancing literacy and fostering a love of country and community. I am honored to be a part of this important project to enhance the visitor experience and present the Library’s countless treasures in new and creative ways,” Rubenstein said. “I commend Dr. Hayden for her vision and leadership in modernizing the Library’s spectacular Jefferson Building in ways that respect its beauty and grandeur.”

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The Library of Congress is seeking applications from current teachers of journalism or economics for a Teacher-in-Residence position within its Learning and Innovation Office during the 2020-21 school year.

The program description and application details for the position can be found at this website. Applications are due on Friday, March 27, 2020.

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Vibrant springtime traditions of cherry blossom viewing in Japan and Washington, D.C., are explored in the new book “Cherry Blossoms: Sakura Collections from the Library of Congress,” published today by Smithsonian Books, in association with the Library of Congress. Events at the Library in April will feature the book and celebrate the annual return of the cherry blossoms to the nation's capital.

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The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress is pleased to announce several new scholars who have arrived or will arrive in residence in 2020.

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By the People, the Library of Congress’ crowdsourced transcription project powered by volunteers across the country is launching a campaign to transcribe Rosa Parks’ personal papers to make them more searchable and accessible online, including many items featured in the exhibition, “Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words,” starting today, the 107^th anniversary of her birth.

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Newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in 1838 and became a voice for abolitionists as a journalist, orator, and author, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress.

The collection is comprised of 568 issues of three weekly newspaper titles dating between 1847 and 1874: The North Star in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass’ Paper in Rochester, New York, and New National Era in Washington, D.C. The collection is online at: loc.gov/collections/frederick-douglass-newspapers/about-this-collection.

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Applications are being accepted for the 2020 Library of Congress Literacy Awards from Jan. 13 to March 6.

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Jason Reynolds has been appointed as the seventh National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2020-2021. The Newbery Honor recipient succeeds Jacqueline Woodson, who served as National Ambassador in 2018-2019.

Reynolds is the author of 13 books for young people including his most recent, “Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks,” a National Book Award finalist, which was named a Best Book of 2019 by NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post and TIME. 

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Thank You!

Thank you for all you do to support the nation’s Library. With new books, films, and music arriving every day, the Library of Congress is your place to discover new ideas. Whether you support us with a gift or simply by spreading the word about what we do, you help us in our mission to connect millions of people around the world with the stories of the world’s past, present, and future.

Spread the word and encourage your friends and family to visit us online or in person and make a gift to the nation’s library today!

Make Your Gift Before We Close the Books on 2019

The Library of Congress is your place to discover new ideas. Visit our new exhibitions, join us for our events and educational programs and participate in our activities that connect you with millions of people around the world.

Join the community of people that helps ignite the power of ideas and make your tax-deductible donation today!

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that she has appointed Maria Strong as Acting Register of Copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office, effective January 5, 2020.

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The Library of Congress today announced a major endowment in support of the work of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). Established by Susan D. Diskin in honor of her late mother, the Tiby Diskin Memorial Fund will provide resources for the Library to expand its services to individuals with visual impairments and other print disabilities.

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To honor the innovative ways in which federal libraries, librarians and library technicians fulfill the information demands of government, businesses, researchers, scholarly communities and the American public, the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) in the Library of Congress has opened nominations for its national awards for federal librarianship in fiscal year 2019.

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For the third year, the Library of Congress is announcing a Librarians-in-Residence program to offer early career librarians the opportunity to develop their expertise and contribute to building, stewarding and sharing the institution’s national collections.  

Applications will be accepted from December 12, 2019 to January 17, 2020.

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A new book from the Library of Congress reveals the civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, for the first time in print through her private manuscripts and handwritten notes. The publication with University of Georgia Press is a companion to the new exhibition of the same title, “Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words.”

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Make Your Gift to the Nation's Library

The day has arrived—#GivingTuesday—a day when your gift makes a difference and a statement.

The Library of Congress depends on the support of people like you for its exhibitions, programs, events and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with its unique collections, experts and services.

The Library of Congress is your gateway to discovery. New books, films and music arrive every day. New research and new stories reveal themselves every day. Join us on this #GivingTuesday, December 3, to help bring new ideas and experiences to life!

Spread the word today and encourage your friends and family to make a gift to the nation’s library, your gateway to understanding the world.

On Tuesday, December 3, we ask you to make a gift to the Library of Congress in celebration of #GivingTuesday—a global giving movement.

Your gift supports exhibitions, events, programs and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with the unique collections, experts and services here at the nation’s library.

The Library of Congress is your gateway to discovery. New books, films and music arrive every day. New research and new stories reveal themselves every day. Help bring new ideas and experiences to life with your gift this #GivingTuesday, December 3.

Save the date to make your gift and visit loc.gov to see what’s new!

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi today announced that the National AIDS Memorial will become the new caretaker of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and NAMES Project programs. As part of the transition, the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial have agreed to jointly gift care and stewardship of The Quilt’s archival collections to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The National AIDS Memorial Quilt Archive contains more than 200,000 photos, biographies, letters & other artifacts of the lives memorialized on Quilt panels.

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Top prize drawing by architectural team at Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., led by Christopher Howard. Features the Old Dominion Bank Building, now known as the Athenaeum, built in 1851 in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Library of Congress and the National Park Service (NPS) announced today that the 2019 Leicester B. Holland Prize will be presented to an architectural team at Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., led by Christopher Howard, an assistant professor of architecture and planning. The prize honors an outstanding historic building, structure or landscape drawing.

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The Library of Congress today announced the arrival of its 2020 Innovators in Residence, who will break new ground at the intersections of technology and hip hop, historic newspapers and classic illustrations.

Established in 2017 to invite creative people to develop research concepts and projects that connect the American people with the Library’s vast collections, the Innovator in Residence program brings some of the most creative and bold thinkers in-house at the largest library in the world. The Innovators in Residence for 2020 are Brian Foo and Benjamin Charles Germain Lee.

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Caption: "L.A. Murals," a new photography exhibition from the Library of Congress, is on view at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles through September 2020.

“L.A. Murals,” a new photography exhibition from the Library of Congress, documents murals painted on the streets of Los Angeles, an epicenter of the world’s street art scene.

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A new book explores the history of the early Americas — a story of before and after, defined and divided by the pivotal moment of contact, in 1492, between Europeans and the indigenous cultures of the New World — told through the collection of early American treasures in the Library of Congress.

On the European side, this is a tale of exploration, high-stakes treasure seeking and conquest. For indigenous Americans — including the Maya, the Nahua, the Taíno, and the Wari — it is the beginning of the end, a violent saga of disease, enslavement, and the loss of languages and rituals.

“Collecting for a New World,” published by D Giles Limited, London, in association with the Library of Congress, relates these encounters through vivid illustrations and interpretive descriptions of more than 60 rare and priceless items.

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The Library of Congress is seeking applicants for its 2020 Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program. This is a 10-week paid fellowship for undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning more about the work done at the largest library in the world.  For more information or to apply for the program, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/internships/junior-fellows-program/. The deadline to apply is Friday, Dec. 20.  

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