January 15, 2010 Main Reading Room Open House on Presidents' Day

In honor of the federal Presidents’ Day Holiday, the magnificent Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress welcomes visitors for a special public open house on Monday, Feb. 15, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Main Reading Room is located on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street, S.E. Washington, DC.

The Thomas Jefferson Building, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., also features the Great Hall, the Library of Congress Experience and other Library exhibitions, including: “Herblock!” featuring 82 original Herblock drawings that have never before been displayed. These works were selected from the Herb Block Foundation’s 2002 gift of the cartoonist’s entire personal and professional archives comprising more than 14,000 finished cartoons, in addition to preliminary sketches, files and manuscripts. The exhibit also includes three seminal cartoons on loan from The Washington Post collection.

The Main Reading Room will be open for viewing only. No reference services will be available and all other reading rooms and facilities will be closed.

Unreserved guided tours of the Thomas Jefferson Building will be offered at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 pm. Tours begin at the Visitors’ Theater on the ground floor. Public tours, which are limited to 50 people, are designed to accommodate individuals and families, not large groups. More information about the Library or tours is available at the orientation desks at www.loc.gov/visit/ or by calling (202) 707-8000.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a new, personalized website at myLOC.gov.