April 24, 1800, the Library of Congress was created. Not only is it the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, but it is also the largest library internationally. The Library is open to billions of people around the world with over 150 million sources. Before mass success and digital promotion, the Library of Congress struggled through tribulations to become the storied brand it is today. The first mention of the Library dates back to 1783 by James Madison. His idea became reality when President John Adams signed an act of Congress. The Library resided in the capital Washington, starting with just 740 books and 3 maps. Just in the process of being established, in the year 1814, the Library was demolished when British men set fire to the capital. The entire collection was destroyed. Thomas Jefferson, who gave the Library the first law requiring the appointment of a librarian and a joint committee, was willing to contribute his history library. Its library was established over the course of 50 years. The following year, the Library accepted Jefferson's offer of 6,487 references. Many years later, in December 1851, the next trial took place. Another fire burned 30,000 books. This included part of Jefferson's donation. In 1861, the Library was still struggling, while the current librarian, John G. Stephenson, focused on issues of the American Civil War. In the end only seven workers remained with 80,000 works. Growth was inevitable for the Library of Congress. In 1928 the John Adams Building was built. The building was not officially completed until 1938. When a new librarian, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, arrived in 1865 the Library of Congress was new. Spofford had donated to the Library Americana and American Lit......middle of paper......re more than a million newspapers from the three centuries of the pass, 500,000 microfilms, and more than five million maps. There are six million scores, three million sounds and more than 14 million images. The Library's collecting population extends approximately 838 miles. “From past to present his collections and interests have been deeply engaged, not only with American culture in general, but with every other culture throughout the world” (Aikin). On the other hand, the WDL started with 1,236 works. As of this year, the WDL numbers more than 9,000. “WDL is a unique collection of global digital primary resources from diverse and unique institutions” (Anderson). Works CitedAikin, J. (2010). Histories from the Library of Congress. Libraries and cultural documentation, 45(1), 5-24. doi:10.1353/lac.0.0113Anderson, M. (2013). The World Digital Library. Internet@Schools, 20(2), 21-23.