List of the largest libraries in the United States
The largest public library in the United States—and the largest library in the world—is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., which is the "de facto" national library of the United States. It holds more than 167 million items, including "more than 39 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14.8 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music and 72 million manuscripts." Other than the Library of Congress, the largest public library in the United States is the New York Public Library, while the largest research library in the United States is the Harvard Library.
William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library
The Ohio State University's University Libraries manages 15 locations on the Columbus campus, of which the Thompson Library is the largest. In addition to housing the main stacks and serving as the central research library for the entire campus, the Thompson Library is home to many of the subject libraries in the humanities and social sciences, as well as reference, special collections, rare books and manuscripts, university archives, journals, and general interest periodicals. Departmental subject libraries include literature, foreign language by region, linguistics, philosophy, religion, theater, anthropology, history, sociology, and political science. Some subject libraries, such as science and engineering, architecture, agriculture, fine arts, law, health sciences, veterinary sciences, and geology, are housed in the university's other libraries.