Chapter 4 - The Americas

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Library of Congress of USA that was designed to assess the contribution of national libraries to the development of national and international library and information systems. The Library of Congress provides more services appropriate to a national library and at a higher general level than any national library in the world concerned with the free flow of information and the promotion of universal access to it. It provides library and information services by authority of Congress, is responsible to Congress for giving priority to its services to Congress, and is not officially a national library. The Library of Congress maintains one of the principal international collections in the USA in the fields of bibliography and generalities, general science and technology, medical (biological sciences), physical sciences, general social sciences, education, law, official publications, humanities, arts, literature, music, and area studies relating to Africa, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Information databases generated by the Library include the following: (1) USA Bibliography, (2) MARC film, (3) MARC Monog, (4) Name Authority, and (5) Subject Authority. The Library of Congress has no executive or advisory role for co-coordinating all libraries in the USA, or Central Government libraries and information services, or provincial or state government library and information services, or the libraries of higher educational institutions, industrial and commercial organizations, public libraries or school libraries, yet by successfully exercising national and international leadership, in low key, it has through completely voluntary cooperation achieved more in coordination than any other national library — at least on the professional level.