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Letters...
Although he did not know it then, the letter Harry Potter received that morning would change his life forever. What Harry did know is how the letter made him feel - someone had thought about him and cared enough to write to him! Letters have a way of giving special recognition to the person receiving it. And why is that? A letter is private, a great deal more private than posting a tweet or updating a status on a social network. It travels through space and time, becoming a bridge that can span decades, even centuries! A letter is not abstract or virtual. The reader can finger it and perhaps even sense the presence of the writer who penned the lines. When tied in bundles and saved in a drawer, letters can be history.
Writing a letter takes time, not just to put the words into sentences, but to think about what to express and how to express it. Letters have attitude! They can be persuasive, argumentative or deviously clever, even downright funny. But they can also be diplomatic, encouraging, comforting. A letter demands thoughtfulness and patience, for the writer must select just the right words to convey his or her thoughts. Most important, writing a letter requires an understanding of the person to whom you are writing. A letter is a personal, private relationship between the writer and reader.
Letters About Literature is a reading promotion program challenging students to express themselves through this very personal form of communication. This program is proudly sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
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Letters...
Although he did not know it then, the letter Harry Potter received that morning would change his life forever. What Harry did know is how the letter made him feel - someone had thought about him and cared enough to write to him! Letters have a way of giving special recognition to the person receiving it. And why is that? A letter is private, a great deal more private than posting a tweet or updating a status on a social network. It travels through space and time, becoming a bridge that can span decades, even centuries! A letter is not abstract or virtual. The reader can finger it and perhaps even sense the presence of the writer who penned the lines. When tied in bundles and saved in a drawer, letters can be history.
Writing a letter takes time, not just to put the words into sentences, but to think about what to express and how to express it. Letters have attitude! They can be persuasive, argumentative or deviously clever, even downright funny. But they can also be diplomatic, encouraging, comforting. A letter demands thoughtfulness and patience, for the writer must select just the right words to convey his or her thoughts. Most important, writing a letter requires an understanding of the person to whom you are writing. A letter is a personal, private relationship between the writer and reader.
Letters About Literature is a reading promotion program challenging students to express themselves through this very personal form of communication. This program is proudly sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
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Contest Rules and Guidelines here
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The
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Origins
The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes. On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.
Statistics
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 158 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 36 million books and other print materials, 3.5 million recordings, 13.7 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 6.7 million pieces of sheet music and 69 million manuscripts.
The Collections
The Library receives some 15,000 items each working day and adds approximately 12,000 items to the collections daily. The majority of the collections are received through the Copyright registration process, as the Library is home to the U.S. Copyright Office. Materials are also acquired through gift, purchase, other government agencies (state, local and federal), Cataloging in Publication (a pre-publication arrangement with publishers) and exchange with libraries in the United States and abroad. Items not selected for the collections or other internal purposes are used in the Library’s national and international exchange programs. Through these exchanges the Library acquires material that would not be available otherwise. The remaining items are made available to other federal agencies and are then available for donation to educational institutions, public bodies and nonprofit tax-exempt organizations in the United States.
Rare Books and Manuscripts
The Library holds the largest rare-book collection in North America (more than 700,000 volumes), including the largest collection of 15th-century books in the Western Hemisphere. The collection also includes the first known book printed in North America, “The Bay Psalm Book” (1640).
Smallest Book
The smallest book in the Library of Congress is “Old King Cole.” It is 1/25” x 1/25”, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Largest Book
The largest book in the Library of Congress is a 5-by-7 foot book featuring color images of Bhutan. With support from Microsoft, a team of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recorded the ancient life and culture in this Southeast Asian country and made 40,000 digital images available to the Bhutan National Archives. A copy of the picture book was donated to the Library of Congress.
Oldest Example of Printing
One of the oldest examples of printing in the world – passages from a Buddhist sutra, or discourse, printed in 770 A.D. – is housed in the Library’s Asian Division. The oldest written material in the Library is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.
Take a quick video tour here.
The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes. On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.
Statistics
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 158 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 36 million books and other print materials, 3.5 million recordings, 13.7 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 6.7 million pieces of sheet music and 69 million manuscripts.
The Collections
The Library receives some 15,000 items each working day and adds approximately 12,000 items to the collections daily. The majority of the collections are received through the Copyright registration process, as the Library is home to the U.S. Copyright Office. Materials are also acquired through gift, purchase, other government agencies (state, local and federal), Cataloging in Publication (a pre-publication arrangement with publishers) and exchange with libraries in the United States and abroad. Items not selected for the collections or other internal purposes are used in the Library’s national and international exchange programs. Through these exchanges the Library acquires material that would not be available otherwise. The remaining items are made available to other federal agencies and are then available for donation to educational institutions, public bodies and nonprofit tax-exempt organizations in the United States.
Rare Books and Manuscripts
The Library holds the largest rare-book collection in North America (more than 700,000 volumes), including the largest collection of 15th-century books in the Western Hemisphere. The collection also includes the first known book printed in North America, “The Bay Psalm Book” (1640).
Smallest Book
The smallest book in the Library of Congress is “Old King Cole.” It is 1/25” x 1/25”, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Largest Book
The largest book in the Library of Congress is a 5-by-7 foot book featuring color images of Bhutan. With support from Microsoft, a team of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recorded the ancient life and culture in this Southeast Asian country and made 40,000 digital images available to the Bhutan National Archives. A copy of the picture book was donated to the Library of Congress.
Oldest Example of Printing
One of the oldest examples of printing in the world – passages from a Buddhist sutra, or discourse, printed in 770 A.D. – is housed in the Library’s Asian Division. The oldest written material in the Library is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.
Take a quick video tour here.