What is the world's largest library?

billfay

The U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Sep 09 00, 1:52 PM

bobby i

The United States Library of Congress, founded on April 24, 1800, Washington, D.C. As of May 1991 there was 575 miles of shelving. Sep 09 00, 2:47 PM

hummerh3

The collections in the Library of Congress include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 57 million manuscripts. http://www.loc.gov/about/ Mar 15 04, 6:09 PM

bigturnip

This all depends on the measurement you use, it is either the US Library of Congress or the British Library. The US Library of Congress claims 530 miles of shelving compared to the British Library's 388 miles. However the British Library has over 154 million catalogued items compared to the 130 million of The US Library of Congress. The better measure is considered to be catalogued items purely because it is a known measurement whereas the length of shelving is only an estimate. Why Guinness World Records use shelving length as their measure is a mystery. The US Library of Congress also now reports almost 50 miles less shelving than it has done previously, so it is either decreasing in size or isn't entirely accurate at reporting figures. Mar 07 07, 7:01 PM