[Excerpt] The Library of Congress, as its name suggests, is a
library dedicated to serving the United States Congress and its
Members. It serves additionally as an unexcelled national
library. The Library was located in the Capitol Building with
the House of Representatives and the Senate until 1897, and its
collections always have been available for use by Congress.
Building upon a concept developed by the New York State Library
and then the Wisconsin legislative reference department,
Wisconsin’s Senator Robert LaFollette and Representative John M.
Nelson led an effort to direct the establishment of a special
reference unit within the Library in 1914. Later known as the
Legislative Reference Service, it was charged with responding to
congressional requests for information. For more than 50 years,
this department assisted Congress primarily by providing facts
and publications and by transmitting research and analysis done
largely by other government agencies, private organizations, and
individual scholars. In