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Boston Public Library

(Encyclopedia)Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

Russian State Library

(Encyclopedia)Russian State Library (RSL), Russia's national library, located in Moscow; one of the world's largest libraries. Moscow's first public library, the RSL was founded in 1862 as the library portion of th...

Trinity College Library

(Encyclopedia)Trinity College Library, in Dublin, the library of the Univ. of Dublin and the largest library in Ireland, est. 1592. Its Old Library building (1712–32) by Thomas Burgh includes the Long Room, housi...

Pierpont Morgan Library

(Encyclopedia)Pierpont Morgan Library, originally the private library of J. Pierpont Morgan, in 1924 made a public institution by his son J. P. Morgan as a memorial to his father (see Morgan, family). The library i...

Capitol, seat of the U.S. Congress

(Encyclopedia)Capitol, seat of the U.S. government at Washington, D.C. It is the city's dominating monument, built on an elevated site that was chosen by George Washington in consultation with Major Pierre L'Enfant...

Putnam, Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Putnam, Herbert, 1861–1955, American librarian, b. New York City; son of George P. Putnam. He served as librarian at the Minneapolis Athenaeum (1884–87) and of the Minneapolis Public Library (1887...

Green, Samuel Swett

(Encyclopedia)Green, Samuel Swett, 1837–1918, American librarian, b. Worcester, Mass. Green was librarian of the Worcester, Mass., Free Public Library (1871–1909) and was a member of the Free Public Library Com...

Clapp, Verner

(Encyclopedia)Clapp, Verner, 1901–72, American librarian, b. Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying philosophy at Harvard, Clapp worked for the Library of Congress (1922–56), becoming chief assistant librar...

catalog

(Encyclopedia)catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Cal...

Spofford, Ainsworth Rand

(Encyclopedia)Spofford, Ainsworth Rand spŏfˈərd [key], 1825–1908, librarian of Congress of the United States, b. Belknap co., N.H. In 1861 he became chief assistant librarian of Congress and was appointed libr...