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.
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign University Library
The University Library is part of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, or CARLI. CARLI manages the shared catalog I-Share with 138 members, or more than 94% of the academic libraries in the state. I-Share libraries are able to share books, DVDs, print journals, and other collections with each other. The University Library is the largest single library in the CARLI/I-SHARE system, and as such, its collections are the backbone of the wider I-SHARE collections.