"Library of Congress Adds Web Items," AP, April 22, 2000

Jefferson is seen here in a portrait by Charles Willson Peale. A reconstruction of the library of Thomas Jefferson, sold to the Library of Congress in the early 1800's, is scheduled to be featured during a 200-year birthday party Monday at the Library of Congress in Washington. The library has been placing about one million items annually on its American Memory website, including historical material like the papers of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The library expects to have nearly five million items on the www.loc.gov website by the end of 2000. (AP Photo/Library of Congress 22 April, 2000)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Looking forward and backward, the Library of Congress is holding a 200-year birthday bash on Monday, opening a new Web site for kids and showing off a reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's own library -- the core of the world's biggest collection. It's not just books. Last time it counted, the library had 9,429,184 books, including music, bound newspapers and other printed material. It also had 53,120,327 manuscripts and over 13 million films, prints, photos, drawings and posters. Almost 119 million items in all. They include clay tablets 4,000 years old with information about the economy of Sumeria in Asia Minor, Librarian James H. Billington notes.

The library has been putting about a million items annually on its Web site called American Memory, largely historical material like the papers of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Maps and photos, too. It expects to reach 5 million by the end of this year. The new Web site -- www.americaslibrary.gov -- was due to go on line Monday with 3,000 items, educational items for children and families. Additions will depend largely on private contributions, which spokesman Guy Lamolinara estimated as covering three-quarters of the costs. For the year that ended last Sept. 30, Congress appropriated $391,660,000 for all the library's activities.

In 1800, when Philadelphia was still the capital, President John Adams signed a bill providing $5,000 "for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them.'' Now anyone can get a reader's card or tap the resources at -- www.loc.gov -- the library's main Web site. Last year it recorded nearly 2 million on-site visits, compared with inquiries from 568,317 personal visits.

In 1813 U.S. troops invaded Canada and burned the parliament's library. The next year the British burned Washington and the 2,000-book library was ruined. Jefferson, 71 and deep in debt, sold the government his collection of 6,487 books, one of the country's best, for $23,940. The library calculates that would be $213,000 in today's money. Later fires destroyed many of them. Jerry Jones, owner of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, gave a million dollars toward a reconstruction of the original collection. "In the heart of (Washington) Redskins' territory it is particularly appreciated,'' Billington said. The reconstruction contains not only the same titles as Jefferson owned but precisely the same editions that he bought. They are arranged in a circle of tall shelves as they once were above the entrance hall to his home at Monticello. Mark Dimunation, head of rare books at the library, is still looking for several hundred and his meticulously marked the gaps in his reconstruction.

Jefferson remains the library's hero. Its main building, where the birthday celebration takes place, is named for him. There's also an exhibit of his inventions, letters and other writings. They include a scrap of paper on which he jotted a few lines intended for the Declaration of Independence. They denounce the British people, in addition to King George III, for oppressing the 13 colonies. Other delegates diplomatically cut them out of the text, much to his indignation. Another item in the show: a cartoon of Jefferson's time titled "Philosopher Cock,'' portraying him as a rooster gazing down at a hen with a black human face and a bandanna around her head -- an allusion to reports of his relations with a slave, Sally Hemings.