What are the top five libraries in the world?

1. Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is located in Washington and was built in 1800. The library has become a giant in the history of libraries with a collection of 128 million volumes, including 29 million books, 12 million photos, and 58 million manuscripts. More than two-thirds of the books are stored in multimedia form. . Includes many rare books, specialty collections, the world's largest maps, film and television reels, and more.

According to statistics from the Chinese Department of the museum, so far, it has more than 50,000 ancient Chinese rare books. Among them, there is a volume called "All Tathagata", which is a woodblock print of Buddhist scriptures in the early Northern Song Dynasty in 975 AD. It also has more than 4,000 kinds of Chinese local chronicles and more than 60,000 volumes, of which more than 100 are unique in China. Regarding the written materials of China's ethnic minorities, the department also collects more than 200 kinds of Tibetan woodblock prints and more than 400 kinds. Collection of Manchu materials and 3,000 types of Dongba materials of the Naxi ethnic group in Yunnan.

The Library of Congress is composed of three buildings named after presidents, namely the Jefferson Building completed in 1897, the Adams Building completed in 1939, and the Madison Building completed in 1983. The total area is 342,000 square meters. The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the President and voted by the Senate for life. The names of past curators are engraved on the marble wall on the side of the Jefferson Building.

2. Russian State Library

The Russian State Library is the largest library in Europe, with a total collection of books second only to the Library of Congress in the United States, ranking second in the world. The predecessor of the Russian State Library was the Moscow State Library and the Rumitsev Museum, which was established with the signature and approval of the emperor on July 1, 1862. In 1862, the Rumyantsev Museum moved from Petersburg to Moscow. In 1925, it was renamed the State Lenin Library of the Soviet Union. In 1992, the Russian State Library was established on the basis of the State Lenin Library of the Soviet Union.

As of the end of 2000, the Russian State Library had a collection of 42.8 million books in 249 languages ??(including 115 Asian and African languages), including 15.9 million books and pamphlets, and 1,310 magazines. 1.3 million serial publications, 63,250 bound volumes of newspapers, 362,300 musical scores, 144,500 maps, 1.3 million atlases, 1.3 million slogan publications, 2.2 million special scientific and technological documents, and 758,800 doctoral theses , 500,900 archives and manuscript materials, 15,200 unpublished cultural and artistic materials, 30,900 audio-visual materials, and 3.7 million microfilmed documents.

3. The National Library of France

The National Library of France is the largest library in France. Its history can be traced back to Charles V (1364-1380) who collected the royal books of all dynasties. The King's Library established was later rebuilt in Fontainebleau by Francois I (1515-1547) and was called the Royal Library. It was renamed the National Library in 1792 and was renamed several times thereafter. In 1981, President Mitterrand proposed to build the "world's first library". The foundation stone was laid at the end of 1990 and it was completed in March 1995. President Mitterrand attended the inauguration ceremony of the new library. On July 21, 1993, the French Council of Ministers decided to merge the original National Library and the newly built Bibliotheque de France and rename it the National Library of France. The new National Library of France was officially opened on December 20, 1996 under the chairmanship of President Chirac and was named the Mitterrand Library.

Now, the library has a collection of 13 million books, which is almost the same as the collection of the British Museum. 600,000 of them are open-shelf books. In addition, there are 350,000 magazines, 250,000 celebrity manuscripts, more than 1 million audio-visual materials, and more than 800,000 pieces of commemorative medals, currencies and other cultural relics. The number of audio-visual materials and celebrity manuscripts ranks first in the world.

4. British Library

The British Library (also translated as the British Library and the British National Library) was established on July 1, 1973 and is located in London and West Yorkshire. . It is composed of the former British Museum Library, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library and the National Bibliographic Press.

The reference department of the library contains more than 10 million printed books, 120,000 handwritten books, 100,000 seals, and more than 3,000 papyrus manuscripts and other materials. The loan department has approximately 13 million books, 92,000 journals and newspapers, 3.5 million microfilm files, and 3 million audio recordings. The library holds a copy of every book, newspaper, journal and sheet music published in the UK. The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences has a collection of 13 million volumes, including the Oriental and Indian Room collections, the National Sound Archives, manuscripts, music, maps, newspapers and stamps.

5. National Library of China

The National Library of China was completed in 1987, covering an area of ??7.24 hectares and a construction area of ??140,000 square meters. It is located on the south bank of the Long River of Baishi Bridge in Haidian District, Beijing. , next to Zizhuyuan Park. There are 19 floors of above-ground library and 3 floors of underground library. The library construction area is 60,000 square meters. On September 9, 1999, the Qing government approved the establishment of the Capital Library (the predecessor of the National Library). Over the past century, the Capital Library has been renamed the National Peking Library and the Beijing Library. In December 1998 On the 12th, it was renamed the National Library.

The National Library of China is the largest library in Asia. As of 2005, the collection capacity reached more than 25 million volumes, including more than 2 million priceless rare ancient books. The famous "Yongle Dadian" ”, “Sikuquanshu”, etc. are too numerous to mention. Among them, the "Four Special Collections", namely the "Dunhuang Posthumous Scripts", the "Zhaocheng Gold Collection", the "Yongle Dadian" and the "Wenjin Pavilion Sikuquanshu" have attracted the most attention.