<P> Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016, to become the first woman and first African - American to hold the position . </P> <P> The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, a Gutenberg Bible (originating from the St. Blaise Abbey, Black Forest) (one of only three perfect vellum copies known to exist); over 1 million U.S. government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning the past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; over 6,000 titles in all, totaling more than 120,000 issues comic book titles; films; 5.3 million maps; 6 million works of sheet music; 3 million sound recordings; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings; the Betts Stradivarius; and the Cassavetti Stradivarius . </P> <P> The Library developed a system of book classification called Library of Congress Classification (LCC), which is used by most US research and university libraries . </P> <P> The Library serves as a legal repository for copyright protection and copyright registration, and as the base for the United States Copyright Office . Regardless of whether they register their copyright, all publishers are required to submit two complete copies of their published works to the Library--this requirement is known as mandatory deposit . Nearly 22,000 new items published in the U.S. arrive every business day at the Library . Contrary to popular belief, however, the Library does not retain all of these works in its permanent collection, although it does add an average of 10,000 items per day . Rejected items are used in trades with other libraries around the world, distributed to federal agencies, or donated to schools, communities, and other organizations within the United States . As is true of many similar libraries, the Library of Congress retains copies of every publication in the English language that is deemed significant . </P>

Whos library formed the basis for library of congress