With over 2.3 million volumes, the Law Library of Congress is the world's largest legal collection of United States federal and state, international, comparative and foreign law covering over 200 jurisdictions. The Law Library provides legal and legislative reference and collection services to Congress, the Judicial and Executive branches of government, and to the American public. As our de facto national Law Library, it serves a critically important role as the Federal government's only comprehensive legal and legislative research collection. With an exceptionally skilled staff competent in most foreign languages and international law and legal systems of the world, the Law Library serves more than 100,000 users each year and, in addition, a rapidly increasing number of remote users through its web site and its unique digital collections. Security Measures Mr. Chairman, we thank the Congress for its support of the Library's efforts to enhance the security of the collections and its staff.
All libraries face significant challenges in ensuring the safety of their staff and collections.
Such services are integral to library operations. These requests complement, indeed, build upon other security measures supported by the Subcommittee over the last several years. Conclusion In closing, Mr. Chairman, as the Library of Congress celebrates 200 years of service to the Congress and the people of the Nation, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that all constituencies benefit from the Librarys acquisitions pertaining to our Nation's cultural resources, growing networked information environment, and global information resources. Funding to assist the Library in strengthening its infrastructure is a key step in meeting this important goal. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today.