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.
Wesleyan University
The second largest library on campus is the Science Library, which houses over two hundred fifty thousand volumes of science abstracts, books, journals, monographs, papers, periodicals, and surveys. The Science Library also has a large collection called the Cutter Collection, which is an older private collection of mostly 19th century English language books of European literature, art, and culture.