The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : The Whole World in Your Hands

The Library of Congress is the most comprehensive library in the world and includes extensive resources for the study of all of its nations. The Global Gateway Web site is a great way to access many of these international resources. Global Resources page offers links to Area Studies Reading Rooms of the Library - the Hispanic, European, African and Middle Eastern, and Asian. The Global Resources page is an excellent introduction to the resources in these reading rooms as well as to international resources in other areas of the Library.

Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, Senate majority leader, Sept. 1955.

For example, the Geography and Map Division, Motion Picture and Television, Performing Arts, Prints and Photographs, and Rare Book & Special Collections reading rooms all have extensive collections of materials relating to foreign countries. The primary mission of the Law Library is to provide Congress with information about the laws of other nations as it works to write legislation for this country. The Law Library thus has vast holdings in international law. Even the American Folklife Center, its name notwithstanding, has materials relating to other nations.

A. "Global Gateway" home page, www.loc.gov/international

B. Detail from an Ethiopian painting (20th century), depicting the Battle of Adwa, 1896. African Section, African and Middle Eastern Division.