The author standing in front of the Jefferson building of the US Library of Congress located in Washington, DC. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

Undoubtedly most educators would agree that experiential learning is one of the best ways for students to learn. And one of the best ways to create meaningful  experiential learning experiences is travel. An especially great place to travel to is our nation’s capital city, Washington, DC. In a city chock full of historical sites and fascinating museums, one of the most interesting is the US Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress was founded by Congress in 1800. At that time, Congressmen felt the need for access to a reference library which would contain “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress — and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein…”

The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 grant approved by Congress. The library’s collection was housed in the new Capitol building until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the the structure, burning and pillaging the contents of the small library. Within a month of this devastating loss, retired President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement. Jefferson had spent 50 years accumulating books, “putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science.” His library was considered to be one of the finest in the United States in his day.

Today, the Library of Congress houses more than 38 million books and other printed materials; 3.6 million recordings; 14 million photographs; 5.5 million maps; 8.1 million pieces of sheet music; 70 million manuscripts; 5,711 incunabala;, and 122,810,430 items in the nonclassified (special) collections. That’s a total of more than 167 million items!

A tour of the institution makes an invaluable experiential learning oportunity. Like nearly all museums and government buildings open to the public, admission to the facility is free.

You can access the website of the Library of Congress at this link: LOC. You can also view a five-minute You Tube video which here.