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96-498: The SSRC offers several fellowships to researchers in the social sciences and related disciplines, including for international fieldwork. The SSRC came into being in 1923 as a result of the initiative of the American Political Science Association 's committee on research, headed by the association's president, Charles E. Merriam (1874–1953), who was chair of the political science department at

192-718: A concert hall to be constructed within the Library of Congress building and an honorarium established for the Music Division to pay live performers for concerts. A number of chairs and consultantships were established from the donations, the most well-known of which is the Poet Laureate Consultant . The library's expansion eventually filled the library's Main Building, although it used shelving expansions in 1910 and 1927. The library needed to expand into

288-1140: A "democracy alcove" in the Main Reading Room of the Jefferson Building for essential documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and The Federalist Papers . The Library of Congress assisted during the war effort, ranging from storage of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution in Fort Knox for safekeeping to researching weather data on the Himalayas for Air Force pilots. MacLeish resigned in 1944 when appointed as Assistant Secretary of State. President Harry Truman appointed Luther H. Evans as Librarian of Congress. Evans, who served until 1953, expanded

384-403: A $ 5,000 appropriation for the Library of Congress, noting the need to improve its collections in "Law, Politics, Commerce, History, and Geography," which were crucial for Congress. On December 24, 1851, the largest fire in the library's history destroyed 35,000 books, two-thirds of the library's collection, and two-thirds of Jefferson's original transfer. Congress appropriated $ 168,700 to replace

480-678: A 'full-ride', covering all tuition, accommodation, housing and others. Some prestigious, highly competitive scholarships are well-known even outside the academic community, such as Fulbright Scholarship and the Rhodes Scholarships at the graduate level, and the Robertson , Morehead-Cain and Jefferson Scholarships at the undergraduate level. While the terms scholarship and grant are frequently used interchangeably, they are distinctly different. Where grants are offered based exclusively on financial need, scholarships may have

576-647: A Nobel laureate in economics, led the SSRC Committee on Economic Growth from 1949–1968. His long involvement with the SSRC began in 1925, when he was a research fellow studying economic patterns in prices. In 1961, Kuznets headed a new SSRC committee on the Economy of China. Harold D. Lasswell (1902–1978) was among the earliest SSRC research fellows (1928–1929). He went on to become a prominent political scientist and president of ASPA. Owen Lattimore (1900–1989),

672-857: A dozen joint committees covering: The joint SSRC-ACLS committees would accomplish most of their work—field development workshops, conferences, and publications—with funding from the Ford Foundation . In 1972 Ford conferred to the two councils the responsibility for managing its centerpiece program, the Foreign Area Fellowship Program (FAFP). For the next 30 years, the SSRC and the ACLS would award approximately 3,000 area studies dissertation fellowships and, with funds from other foundations as well, another 2,800 postdoctoral area studies research grants. In Kenton Worcester's words: "The cumulative total of awards for field research outside

768-433: A field. Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph J. Bunche (1903–1971) held an SSRC research training fellowship in 1936–1938. Presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns (born 1918) has held two SSRC awards: a demobilization award in 1946–1947, and a research training award in 1949. Historian John Hope Franklin (1915–2009) was a recipient of an SSRC fellowship in the early part of his career. From 1956 to 1961, he served on

864-484: A financial need component but rely on other criteria as well. A federal Pell Grant can be awarded to someone planning to receive their undergraduate degree and is solely based on their financial needs. The most common scholarships may be classified as: Library of Congress The Library of Congress ( LOC ) is a research library in Washington, D.C. , serving as the library and research service for

960-453: A legislative and national library. Asked by Joint Library Committee chairman Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) to assess operations and make recommendations, Douglas Bryant of Harvard University Library proposed several institutional reforms. These included expanding national activities and services and various organizational changes, all of which would emphasize the library's federal role rather than its legislative role. Bryant suggested changing

1056-546: A more general one. He organized his books based on Francis Bacon 's organization of knowledge , grouping them into Memory, Reason, and Imagination with 44 subdivisions. The library used this scheme until the late 19th century when librarian Herbert Putnam introduced the Library of Congress Classification , now applying to over 138 million items. A February 24, 1824, report from the Committee of Ways and Means recommended

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1152-430: A national library and a legislative resource. He was aided by expansion of the federal government after the war and a favorable political climate. He began comprehensively collecting Americana and American literature , led the construction of a new building to house the library, and transformed the librarian of Congress position into one of strength and independence. Between 1865 and 1870, Congress appropriated funds for

1248-595: A new structure. Congress acquired nearby land in 1928 and approved construction of the Annex Building (later known as the John Adams Building ) in 1930. Although delayed during the Depression years, it was completed in 1938 and opened to the public in 1939. After Putnam retired in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed poet and writer Archibald MacLeish as his successor. Occupying

1344-497: A permanent display), on the global celebration commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta , and on early American printing, featuring the Rubenstein Bay Psalm Book . Onsite access to the Library of Congress has been increased. Billington gained an underground connection between the new U.S. Capitol Visitors Center and the library in 2008 in order to increase both congressional usage and public tours of

1440-422: A place in the Library of Congress, stating: I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer. Jefferson's library was a working collection for a scholar, not for display. It doubled the size of the original library, transforming it from a specialist's library to

1536-457: A prominent anthropologist of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia, held a research fellowship in 1929–1930. Political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset (1922–2006) held a field fellowship in 1945–1946. One of the results was his award-winning book Political Man (1960), which remains thought provoking to this day. World-renowned cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901–1978) held

1632-410: A rare venue where one could see what a historian thought of the work of an economist, or what a literary critic thought of behavioralist sociology." According to Cumings, the SSRC was particularly appreciated as a meeting ground between traditional social science disciplines and area studies. Even when area studies occupied center stage, the SSRC continued to support advanced research on social themes of

1728-477: A research fellowship in 1928–1929. Economist and Nobel laureate Douglass C. North (born 1920), best known for his work on new institutional economics, was an economic history fellow, 1949–1950. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (born 1954) is a former SSRC board member. Economist W.W. Rostow (1916–2003), best known for his work on the stages of economic growth, was a field fellow in 1939–1940. Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz (born 1920)

1824-446: A restricted scope for the Library of Congress reflected those shared by members of Congress. While Meehan was a librarian, he supported and perpetuated the notion that "the congressional library should play a limited role on the national scene and that its collections, by and large, should emphasize American materials of obvious use to the U.S. Congress." In 1859, Congress transferred the library's public document distribution activities to

1920-749: A small congressional library was housed in the Capitol. Much of the original collection was lost in the August 1814 Burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812 . Congress accepted former president Thomas Jefferson 's offer to sell his entire personal collection of 6,487 books to restore the library. The collection grew slowly and suffered another major fire in 1851, which destroyed two-thirds of Jefferson's original books. The Library of Congress faced space shortages, understaffing, and lack of funding, until

2016-533: A study of human migration from a social standpoint, said to be the institution's first global endeavor. Franklin D. Roosevelt served as a member of the Council's Advisory Committee on Business Research (1928–1931). After he became president, collaborations between administration officials, the Rockefeller Foundation , Council staff, and Council networks led to the committee work that accompanied

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2112-593: The American Library Association testified that the library should continue its expansion to become a true national library. Based on the hearings, Congress authorized a budget that allowed the library to more than double its staff, from 42 to 108 persons. Senators Justin Morrill of Vermont and Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana were particularly helpful in gaining this support. The library also established new administrative units for all aspects of

2208-543: The American Political Science Association ; and the Committee on Comparative Politics, organized in 1953 and headed by Gabriel Almond and then Lucian Pye , both of whom also became APSA presidents. The SSRC's agenda for the behavioral social sciences largely came apart in the 1970s, leaving area studies as its central platform. By then, the SSRC and the ACLS had emerged as the national nexus for raising and administering funds for area studies. They created and managed about

2304-705: The Congressional Research Service . After Mumford retired in 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed historian Daniel J. Boorstin as a librarian. Boorstin's first challenge was to manage the relocation of some sections to the new Madison Building, which took place between 1980 and 1982. With this accomplished, Boorstin focused on other areas of library administration, such as acquisitions and collections. Taking advantage of steady budgetary growth, from $ 116 million in 1975 to over $ 250 million by 1987, Boorstin enhanced institutional and staff ties with scholars, authors, publishers, cultural leaders, and

2400-724: The Department of the Interior and its international book exchange program to the Department of State . During the 1850s, Smithsonian Institution librarian Charles Coffin Jewett aggressively tried to develop the Smithsonian as the United States national library. His efforts were rejected by Smithsonian secretary Joseph Henry , who advocated a focus on scientific research and publication. To reinforce his intentions for

2496-693: The Gutenberg Bible . Putnam established the Legislative Reference Service (LRS) in 1914 as a separative administrative unit of the library. Based on the Progressive era 's philosophy of science to be used to solve problems, and modeled after successful research branches of state legislatures, the LRS would provide informed answers to Congressional research inquiries on almost any topic. Congress passed in 1925 an act allowing

2592-537: The John Adams Building (opened in 1939) and the James Madison Memorial Building (opened in 1980), were later added. The LOC's primary mission is to inform legislation, which it carries out through the Congressional Research Service . The library is open to the public for research, although only members of Congress, their staff, and library employees may borrow materials for use outside the library. James Madison of Virginia proposed

2688-651: The National Film Registry , a collection of American films, for which the Library of Congress accepts nominations each year. There also exists a National Recording Registry administered by the National Recording Preservation Board that serves a similar purpose for music and sound recordings. The library has made some of these available on the Internet for free streaming and additionally has provided brief essays on

2784-1151: The United States Congress and the de facto national library of the United States . It also administers copyright law through the United States Copyright Office . Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States . It is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill , adjacent to the United States Capitol , along with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia , and additional storage facilities at Fort George G. Meade and Cabin Branch in Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by

2880-756: The University of Chicago and an early champion of behaviorally-oriented social science. Representatives of the American Economic Association , the American Sociological Society , and the American Statistical Association joined with Merriam and his associates in forming the world's first coordinating body of the social sciences. Other national associations—in anthropology , history , and psychology —designated representatives to

2976-471: The interlibrary loan service, transforming the Library of Congress into what he referred to as a "library of last resort". Putnam also expanded library access to "scientific investigators and duly qualified individuals", and began publishing primary sources for the benefit of scholars. During Putnam's tenure, the library broadened the diversity of its acquisitions. In 1903, Putnam persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to use an executive order to transfer

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3072-473: The librarian of Congress and establishing a Joint Committee on the Library to oversee it. The law also extended borrowing privileges to the president and vice president. In August 1814, British forces occupied Washington and, in retaliation for American acts in Canada, burned several government buildings, including the Library of Congress. Most of its 3,000 volumes were destroyed. These volumes were held in

3168-520: The librarian of Congress , and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol . The LOC is one of the largest libraries in the world , containing approximately 173 million items and employing over 3,000 staff. Its collections are "universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages". When Congress moved to Washington in November 1800,

3264-399: The 1897 reorganization upon moving into its new home, the Library of Congress began to grow and develop more rapidly. Librarian Spofford's successor John Russell Young overhauled the library's bureaucracy, used his connections as a former diplomat to acquire more materials from around the world, and established the library's first assistance programs for the blind and physically disabled, with

3360-524: The 1920s. The other was Beardsley Ruml , who had trained in psychometrics at the University of Chicago . Ruml was active in the early phases of Rockefeller philanthropies. He poured Rockefeller resources into the social sciences in general and the SSRC in particular. All three men channeled their progressive values into the cause of empirical research and knowledge. In his 2001 history of the SSRC, Kenton Worcester highlighted four aspects of their founding vision that remain central to this day: Starting in

3456-586: The American Civil War increased the importance of legislative research to meet the demands of a growing federal government. In 1870, the library gained the right to receive two copies of every copyrightable work printed in the United States; it also built its collections through acquisitions and donations. Between 1890 and 1897, a new library building, now the Thomas Jefferson Building , was constructed. Two additional buildings,

3552-617: The Capitol building . Hayden clarified two days later that rioters did not breach any of the Library's buildings or collections and all staff members were safely evacuated. On February 14, 2023, the Library announced that the Lilly Endowment gifted $ 2.5 million, five-year grant to "launch programs that foster greater understanding of religious cultures in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East". The Library plans to leverage

3648-493: The Castle due to its Norman architectural style, was severely damaged by fire. This incident presented Henry with an opportunity related to the Smithsonian's non-scientific library. Around this time, the Library of Congress was planning to build and relocate to the new Thomas Jefferson Building , designed to be fireproof. Authorized by an act of Congress, Henry transferred the Smithsonian's non-scientific library of 40,000 volumes to

3744-535: The Ethnogeographic Board, with the mission of providing information about unfamiliar societies with which the war was suddenly bringing Americans into contact. The Board developed a roster of people with specialized area knowledge and conducted a survey of nascent area studies programs in American universities. The identity of the Council in the latter half of the 20th century would closely overlap

3840-809: The Jefferson Building were enlarged and technologically enhanced to serve as a national exhibition venue. It has hosted more than 100 exhibitions. These included exhibits on the Vatican Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France , several on the Civil War and Lincoln, on African-American culture, on Religion and the founding of the American Republic, the Early Americas (the Kislak Collection became

3936-540: The Library Collections Security Oversight Committee in 1992 to improve protection of the collections, and also the Library of Congress Congressional Caucus in 2008 to draw attention to the library's curators and collections. He created the library's first Young Readers Center in the Jefferson Building in 2009, and the first large-scale summer intern (Junior Fellows) program for university students in 1991. Under Billington,

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4032-561: The Library of Congress as "one of the last refuges in Washington of serious bipartisanship and calm, considered conversation", and "one of the world's greatest cultural centers". Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016, the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. In 2017, the library announced the Librarian-in-Residence program, which aims to support

4128-502: The Library of Congress in 1866. President Abraham Lincoln appointed John G. Stephenson as librarian of Congress in 1861; the appointment is regarded as the most political to date. Stephenson was a physician and spent equal time serving as librarian and as a physician in the Union Army . He could manage this division of interest because he hired Ainsworth Rand Spofford as his assistant. Despite his new job, Stephenson focused on

4224-426: The Library of Congress to establish a trust fund board to accept donations and endowments, giving the library a role as a patron of the arts . The library received donations and endowments by such prominent wealthy individuals as John D. Rockefeller , James B. Wilbur, and Archer M. Huntington . Gertrude Clarke Whittall donated five Stradivarius violins to the library. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge 's donations paid for

4320-515: The SSRC's long-running Grants-in-Aid Committee. Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) had a research training fellowship in 1937–1938. Historian Peter Gay (born 1923) was a research training fellow in 1950–1951. Morris Janowitz (1919–1988), a prominent sociologist at the University of Chicago who specialized in the sociology of the military, received a demobilization award, 1946–1947. Simon Kuznets (1901–1985),

4416-458: The Senate wing of the Capitol; one surviving volume was a government account book from 1810. This volume was taken by British commander George Cockburn as a souvenir and returned to the U.S. by his family in 1940. Within a month, Jefferson offered to sell his large personal library as a replacement. He had reconstituted his own collection after losing part of it to a fire. Congress accepted

4512-557: The Smithsonian, Henry established laboratories, developed a robust physical sciences library, and started the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge , the first of many publications intended to disseminate research results. For Henry, the Library of Congress was the obvious choice as the national library. Unable to resolve the conflict, Henry dismissed Jewett in July 1854. In 1865, the Smithsonian building, also called

4608-508: The Twitter archive remains unfinished. Before retiring in 2015, after 28 years of service, Billington had come "under pressure" as librarian of Congress. This followed a GAO report that described a "work environment lacking central oversight" and faulted Billington for "ignoring repeated calls to hire a chief information officer, as required by law." When Billington announced his plans to retire in 2015, commentator George Weigel described

4704-487: The United States was staggering." Annual reports of the SSRC indicate that the area committees had an impressive record of productivity and influence on area studies and the disciplines they encompassed. In particular, scholars appeared to appreciate the fertile ground the SSRC/ACLS area committees provided for interdisciplinary scholarship. As Korea specialist Bruce Cumings put it: "For decades [these committees] offered

4800-408: The United States. Similar to other Progressive-Era institutions, the SSRC represented a new kind of hybrid—one that was in some ways defined more by what it wasn't than what it was. It was not a governmental body, thus was removed from the pressures of Washington and public calls for quick-fix solutions to social problems. It was not an academic association—so was freed from disciplinary boundaries. It

4896-717: The area studies field would be transformed and integrated into traditional social science disciplines—especially, economics , sociology , and political science . Emphasis would shift from country and area to theme and context-sensitivity. The SSRC's records are stored in the Rockefeller Archive Center , North Tarrytown, New York. As of 2024: Since 1923, the SSRC has funded the research of over fifteen thousand fellows. Most SSRC fellowships are conducted through peer-reviewed competitions and offer support for predissertation, dissertation, postdoctoral and other research work. And, although most SSRC fellowships target

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4992-434: The business community. His activities changed the post of librarian of Congress so that by the time he retired in 1987, The New York Times called this office "perhaps the leading intellectual public position in the nation." President Ronald Reagan nominated historian James H. Billington as the 13th librarian of Congress in 1987, and the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment. Under Billington's leadership,

5088-406: The collection. In its bill, Congress strengthened the role of librarian of Congress: it became responsible for governing the library and making staff appointments. As with presidential Cabinet appointments, the Senate was required to approve presidential appointees to the position. In 1893, Elizabeth Dwyer became the first woman to be appointed to the staff of the library. With this support and

5184-411: The construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building , placed all copyright registration and deposit activities under the library's control, and restored the international book exchange. The library also acquired the vast libraries of the Smithsonian and of historian Peter Force , strengthening its scientific and Americana collections significantly. By 1876, the Library of Congress had 300,000 volumes; it

5280-540: The day. In the 1970s and 1980s, it convened committees addressing such topics as cognitive research, law and social science, international peace and security, states and social structures, the urban underclass, and urban migration. The Council's forays into non-area studies were limited, however, by the challenges of the funding environment. In the immediate postwar period, the SSRC had benefited from unprecedented federal support of social and domestic programs, as well as increased public attention to social science research. But

5376-407: The decades, SSRC research committees have produced edited volumes that helped to crystallize new fields and invigorate existing ones. Noteworthy titles include: Pioneering American political scientist Gabriel Almond (1911–2002) held awards from the SSRC in 1935–1936 and again in 1946–1947. While serving on an SSRC committee, he accomplished critical work in the development of comparative politics as

5472-603: The development of area studies and the promotion of modernization theory . In the wake of World War II, there was widespread consensus on the need for the United States to invest in international studies. Liberals and conservatives alike viewed the creation of a large brain trust of internationally oriented political scientists and economists as an urgent national priority. There was considerable tension, however, between those who felt strongly that, instead of applying Western models, social scientists should develop culturally and historically contextualized knowledge of various parts of

5568-678: The donation in these areas: The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million catalogued books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts ; the largest rare book collection in North America, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence , a Gutenberg Bible (originating from the Saint Blaise Abbey, Black Forest —one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist); over 1 million U.S. government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning

5664-573: The establishment of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled . Librarian Young's successor Herbert Putnam held the office for forty years of the 20th century from 1899 to 1939. Two years after he took office, the library became the first in the United States to hold one million volumes. Putnam focused his efforts to make the library more accessible and useful for the public and for other libraries. He instituted

5760-478: The films that have been added to the registry. By 2015, the librarian had named 650 films to the registry. The films in the collection date from the earliest period to ones produced more than ten years ago; they are selected from nominations submitted to the board. Further programs included: During Billington's tenure, the library acquired General Lafayette 's papers in 1996 from a castle at La Grange, France; they had previously been inaccessible. It also acquired

5856-779: The first fifty years, well over three-quarters of the SSRC's funding was provided by the Russell Sage Foundation , the Ford Foundation , the Carnegie Corporation , and two Rockefeller philanthropies, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial and the Rockefeller Foundation . The SSRC was part of a wider Progressive Era movement to develop organizations of expertise that could dispense disinterested knowledge to policymakers. These organizations would tap leading thinkers in various fields to think creatively about how to address

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5952-599: The first library-wide audit. He created the first Office of the Inspector General at the library to provide regular, independent reviews of library operations. This precedent has resulted in regular annual financial audits at the library; it has received unmodified ("clean") opinions from 1995 onward. In April 2010, the library announced plans to archive all public communication on Twitter , including all communication since Twitter's launch in March 2006. As of 2015 ,

6048-411: The formulation and implementation of Social Security . During World War II , the Council served as a bridge between the Roosevelt administration and the social sciences, working behind the scenes to ensure that qualified social scientists were placed with appropriate agencies. It joined forces with its humanities counterpart, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and other partners to form

6144-472: The future generation of librarians by giving them the opportunity to gain work experience in five different areas of librarianship, including: Acquisitions/Collection Development, Cataloging/Metadata, and Collection Preservation. On January 6, 2021, at 1:11 pm EST, the Library's Madison Building and the Cannon House Office Building were the first buildings in the Capitol Complex to be ordered to evacuate as rioters breached security perimeters before storming

6240-423: The growing tide of American conservatism , begun in the 1950s, eventually led to a populist backlash against federal funding of social research. By the time President Ronald Reagan assumed office, the political atmosphere had soured over the role of the social sciences and public investment in social research. The end of the Cold War and the quickening pace of globalization turned the future of area studies into

6336-454: The idea of creating a congressional library in 1783. Though initially rejected, this was the first introduction of the concept. After the Revolutionary War, the Philadelphia Library Company and New York Society Library served as surrogate congressional libraries when Congress was in those cities. The Library of Congress was established on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed an act of Congress that included appropriating $ 5,000 "for

6432-462: The library doubled the size of its analog collections from 85.5 million items in 1987 to more than 160 million items in 2014. At the same time, it established new programs and employed new technologies to "get the champagne out of the bottle". These included: Since 1988, the library has administered the National Film Preservation Board . Established by congressional mandate, it selects twenty-five American films annually for preservation and inclusion in

6528-419: The library of the Romanov family on a variety of topics. Collections of Hebraica , Chinese, and Japanese works were also acquired. On one occasion, Congress initiated an acquisition: in 1929 Congressman Ross Collins (D-Mississippi) gained approval for the library to purchase Otto Vollbehr 's collection of incunabula for $ 1.5 million. This collection included one of three remaining perfect vellum copies of

6624-551: The library sponsored the Gateway to Knowledge in 2010 to 2011, a mobile exhibition to ninety sites, covering all states east of the Mississippi, in a specially designed eighteen-wheel truck. This increased public access to library collections off-site, particularly for rural populations, and helped raise awareness of what was also available online. Billington raised more than half a billion dollars of private support to supplement Congressional appropriations for library collections, programs, and digital outreach. These private funds helped

6720-430: The library to continue its growth and outreach in the face of a 30% decrease in staffing, caused mainly by legislative appropriations cutbacks. He created the library's first development office for private fundraising in 1987. In 1990, he established the James Madison Council, the library's first national private sector donor-support group. In 1987, Billington also asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct

6816-436: The library's Thomas Jefferson Building. In 2001, the library began a mass deacidification program, in order to extend the lifespan of almost 4 million volumes and 12 million manuscript sheets. In 2002, a new storage facility was completed at Fort Meade, Maryland , where a collection of storage modules have preserved and made accessible more than 4 million items from the library's analog collections. Billington established

6912-598: The library's acquisitions, cataloging, and bibliographic services. But he is best known for creating Library of Congress Missions worldwide. Missions played a variety of roles in the postwar world: the mission in San Francisco assisted participants in the meeting that established the United Nations , the mission in Europe acquired European publications for the Library of Congress and other American libraries, and

7008-509: The lost books in 1852 but not to acquire new materials. (By 2008, the librarians of Congress had found replacements for all but 300 of the works that had been documented as being in Jefferson's original collection. ) This marked the start of a conservative period in the library's administration by librarian John Silva Meehan and joint committee chairman James A. Pearce , who restricted the library's activities. Meehan and Pearce's views about

7104-485: The mid-1920s the Council sponsored annual conferences and launched its Research Training Fellowships program. Committees launched in the 1920s and 1930s included: One of the Council's first acts was to urge Congress to appropriate funds sufficient to allow the Library of Congress to publish an annual index of state laws. As early as 1923, the SSRC cooperated with the National Research Council in

7200-540: The mission in Japan aided in the creation of the National Diet Library . Evans' successor Lawrence Quincy Mumford took over in 1953. During his tenure, lasting until 1974, Mumford directed the initiation of construction of the James Madison Memorial Building , the third Library of Congress building on Capitol Hill. Mumford led the library during the government's increased educational spending. The library

7296-496: The name of the Library of Congress, a recommendation rebuked by Mumford as "unspeakable violence to tradition." The debate continued within the library community for some time. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 renewed emphasis for the library on its legislative roles, requiring a greater focus on research for Congress and congressional committees, and renaming the Legislative Reference Service as

7392-556: The new entity, named the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), in the year following its incorporation on December 27, 1924. (In subsequent years, the membership would expand to include representatives from law , geography , psychiatry , and medicine .) To support its work, the SSRC turned not to the US government, whose support seemed more appropriate for the natural sciences, but to private foundations. For

7488-452: The number one issue for Council management in the concluding years of the 20th century. Under the stewardship of four successive presidents— David Featherman (1989–1995), Kenneth Prewitt (1995–1998), Orville Gilbert Brim Jr. (1998–1999), and Craig Calhoun (1999–2012)—the SSRC closed down its area committees in favor of a reorganized international program with thematic, trans-regional, and cross-cultural components. According to this vision,

7584-492: The offer in January 1815, appropriating $ 23,950 to purchase his 6,487 books. Some House members, like New Hampshire representative Daniel Webster , opposed the purchase, wanting to exclude "books of an atheistical, irreligious, and immoral tendency". Jefferson's collection, gathered over 50 years, covered various subjects and languages, including topics not typically found in a legislative library. He believed all subjects had

7680-488: The one hand, the SSRC was keen to join forces with the country's major foundations—most notably, the Ford Foundation , the Rockefeller Foundation , and the Carnegie Corporation of New York —to promote area studies. For this agenda, it already had a natural institutional partner, the American Council of Learned Societies ; indeed, the two councils had worked during the war mapping out US-based foreign studies. On

7776-399: The only copy of the 1507 Waldseemüller world map ("America's birth certificate") in 2003; it is on permanent display in the library's Thomas Jefferson Building. Using privately raised funds, the Library of Congress has created a reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's original library. This has been on permanent display in the Jefferson building since 2008. Under Billington, public spaces of

7872-453: The other hand, the SSRC also wished to promote behavioralist social science—an agenda that directly descended from Charles Merriam 's prewar concerns. To further its interests in area studies, the SSRC teamed up with the ACLS in administering Area Research Training Fellowships with funds from the Carnegie Corporation , and in forming the Committee on World Area Research. In the words of SSRC historian Eldrige Sibley: "[T]his committee served as

7968-636: The papers of the Founding Fathers from the State Department to the Library of Congress. Putnam expanded foreign acquisitions as well, including the 1904 purchase of a 4,000-volume library of Indica, the 1906 purchase of G. V. Yudin's 80,000-volume Russian library, the 1908 Schatz collection of early opera librettos , and the early 1930s purchase of the Russian Imperial Collection, consisting of 2,600 volumes from

8064-420: The past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; U.S. and foreign comic books—over 12,000 titles in all, totaling more than 140,000 issues; 1.9 million moving images (as of 2020); 5.3 million maps ; 6 million works of sheet music ; 3 million sound recordings ; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings;

8160-536: The post from 1939 to 1944 during the height of World War II , MacLeish became the most widely known librarian of Congress in the library's history. MacLeish encouraged librarians to oppose totalitarianism on behalf of democracy; dedicated the South Reading Room of the Adams Building to Thomas Jefferson, and commissioned artist Ezra Winter to paint four themed murals for the room. He established

8256-460: The primary planning, coordinating and evaluating agency at the national level for the entire foreign area and language movement in the United States." To further its behavioralist agenda, the SSRC set up various other committees—including, most notably, the Committee on Political Behavior, organized in 1945 by E. Pendleton Herring and headed at various times by David Truman , David Easton , and Robert Dahl , all of whom would serve as presidents of

8352-423: The purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress ... and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them." Books were ordered from London, forming a collection of 740 books and three maps housed in the new United States Capitol . President Thomas Jefferson played a crucial role in shaping the Library of Congress. On January 26, 1802, he signed a bill allowing the president to appoint

8448-678: The social and political ills brought on by the Industrial Revolution . Other independent, nongovernmental, policy-minded institutions founded in that era included the American Law Institute (1923), the Brookings Institution (1927), and the Council on Foreign Relations (1921). The Council's main distinguishing feature was its commitment to the advancement of research in the social sciences in

8544-692: The social sciences, a number also engage the humanities, the natural sciences, and relevant professional and practitioner communities. The SSRC established the Albert O. Hirschman Prize in 2007 to recognize academic excellence in international, interdisciplinary social science research, theory, and public communication in the tradition of German-born American economist Albert O. Hirschman . The Hirschman Prize laureates are Dani Rodrik (2007), Charles Tilly (2009), Benedict Anderson (2011), Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (2014), Amartya Sen (2016), Sheila Jasanoff (2018), and James Scott (2020). Throughout

8640-487: The values and goals of the donor of the award, and while scholarship recipients are not required to repay scholarships, the awards may require that the recipient continue to meet certain requirements during their period of support, such as maintaining a minimum grade point average or engaging in a certain activity (e.g., playing on a school sports team for athletic scholarship holders). Scholarships also range in generosity; some cover partial tuition , while others offer

8736-547: The war. Three weeks into his term as Librarian of Congress, he left Washington, D.C., to serve as a volunteer aide-de-camp at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg during the American Civil War . Stephenson's hiring of Spofford, who directed the library in his absence, may have been his most significant achievement. Librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford , who directed the Library of Congress from 1865 to 1897, built broad bipartisan support to develop it as

8832-566: The world by working closely with humanists, and those who thought that social scientists should seek to develop overarching macrohistorical theories that could draw connections between patterns of change and development across different geographies. The former became area studies advocates, the latter proponents of modernization theory . In this context, the postwar SSRC had two separate agendas, which to some extent were at odds with each other because they entailed very different sets of methodological commitments: ideographic versus nomothetic . On

8928-546: Was a research training fellow in 1947–1948. Marxist economist Paul Sweezy (1910–2004), best known for his work Monopoly Capital , received a demobilization award in 1945–1946. Scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education . Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion , athletic skill, and financial need, research experience or specific professional experience. Scholarship criteria usually reflect

9024-478: Was able to establish new acquisition centers abroad, including in Cairo and New Delhi . In 1967, the library began experimenting with book preservation techniques through a Preservation Office. This has developed as the most extensive library research and conservation effort in the United States. During Mumford's administration, the last significant public debate occurred about the Library of Congress's role as both

9120-521: Was not a university and hence did not have to confront competing demands for services unrelated to research. Along with Merriam, two other individuals were especially vital to the SSRC's early success. One was Wesley Clair Mitchell (1874–1948), one of the founders of the New School for Social Research and a leading force behind the emergence of the National Bureau of Economic Research in

9216-603: Was tied with the Boston Public Library as the nation's largest library. It moved from the Capitol building to its new headquarters in 1897 with more than 840,000 volumes, 40 percent of which had been acquired through copyright deposit. A year before the library's relocation, the Joint Library Committee held hearings to assess the condition of the library and plan for its future growth and possible reorganization. Spofford and six experts sent by

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