Evening star., 1932-01-03
Libraries i'm Nations Capital
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

washington, Capital City of the Ma
ton from the point of view of Govern
ment. also has become the book capital
of the Western World 1t possesses some
2no libraries available to the public IN
VARYING degrees and on their 100 mnes
of shelves are to be found more than
| 10000 900 volumes.
| The Library of Congress presides over
them all. ranking, indeed, as the third
largest library in the entire world, de-
spite its youth in comparison with the
European collections. First of all IL
hraries in the world ranks the Biblio-
/ theoue Rationale at Paris. with its
amazing store of 100000 volumes and
additional thousands upon thousands OF
priceless manuscripts and scrolls. Many
| of the latter date back to the days be-
| fore Gutenberg invented the printing
press.
Although the British Museum ranks
second as a library in the world list, II
actually possesses fewer books than The
| Library of Congress at Washing on. Au-
thorities state that the British Museum
/ contains 100000 volumes, whereas the
Library of Congress has 100000. How
ever, the British Museum has larger
collection of manuscripts and other
library material Of great value and
rarity.
The Library OF Congress has. espe-
! cially In recent years, been building up
it's special sections. The manuscript
division annually has accessions OF tre-
mendous historic value. Most OF this Is
| Americana, but there are many lnvalu-
able manuscripts in the collection from
all parts of the world. The music sec
tion Is one Of special interest. Here are
to be found priceless manuscripts OF
sheet music. Much attention has been
given to the map division. In some
respects this division has an interest
above that of the great European
| libraries. From the days of Columbus
the New World was source OF much
speculation in Europe and cartogra-
piers, with or without sound data, made
elaborate and often fanciful maps OF
America Many examples are in the
Library at Washington.
Great Special Libraries.
The Library of Congress Is 8 general
public library and Is visited by thou
sands daily Some Of the special
libraries have as great an Importance,
relatively, in their immediate fields. For
example, there is the Army Medical
Library 1t Is doubtful whether 1t Is
| TphSScu hs SpCCidI 1IDl aly oA4J
and Is certainly the largest In the world.
Aside from the number Of volumes, 1t
has a special Importance In possessing
1000 900 card entries bearing references
| to 600 900 medical publications. 1t was
the Army Medical Library which in
vented the index medicus, system OF
cataloguing medical data which is the
standard for the world.
| The Army seems to have had spe-
cial bent toward book collecting. In ad-
dition to the Medical it has the Army
War College Library. This is collec-
ton of 250,000 volumes dealing with the
history of war, especially from the tao
tical and strategic viewpoint The War
| College is school for Army officers,
post graduate school where the higher
mysteries of tactics are taught staff Off
GERS.
The Department Of Agriculture has
gone far ahead of most other countries
! in its field 1t probably now has the
worlds largest special library devoted