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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Library of Congress

Well, without a doubt, the highlight of this trip to D.C. for me was the behind-the-scenes tour of the Library of Congress. The scale of the operation is just astounding. I got to stand next to some books that Gutenburg himself probably touched. I got to breath that unmistakable aroma that comes from really, really old books.

The Library of Congress does *volume* like no other entity I know and it was truly impressive. I stood in the stacks - the size of two football fields. 2.5 million books. I gazed at a 5 foot high card catalog which, essentially, disappeared over the horizon in both directions. Amazing. A Disneyland for a book nerd like me.

3 comments:

Lab Rat said...

I cannot find information on a behind the scenes tour of LoC via Google. How does one get access to such a thing?

Sean McGrath said...

Lab Rat,
My tour was organized by the AALL conference I attended.
Sean

s said...

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm glad you got to visit.

I read a nice lyrical blurb on taxonomy recently that I keep meaning to email you. Tomorrow!