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They often hold degrees in these subject areas in addition to master's degrees in library or information science. The Special Libraries Association represents about 15,000 special librarians from the United States, Canada, and other countries. The organization is divided into units of various fields of specialization, such as aerospace engineering, chemistry, law, and petroleum and energy resources. The Special Libraries Association facilitates interaction among special librarians in a given field, promotes continuing education among special librarians, and helps special librarians build problem-solving networks. FGovernment Libraries Most governments of the world maintain libraries to serve the needs of elected officials and their staff members. Usually these libraries are open to the general public as well. The United States maintains government libraries at both the national and the state level. Canada has government libraries at the national, provincial, and territorial levels. In addition, most governments maintain national archives, which collect and maintain historical records, including government documents of enduring value. A national library acquires, preserves, and promotes its country's published heritage by acquiring copies of as many domestically created works as possible. In the United States, Canada, and most other countries, authors are required to submit copies of their published work to the national library in order to receive copyright protection for that work. By functioning as legal copyright depositories, national libraries collect and preserve their country's cultural heritage. Most national libraries also create national bibliographies, which list information about every publication in their country. Some of the largest and most prestigious national libraries in the world are the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; the British Library in the outskirts of London; and the Russian State Library in Moscow. The following sections describe national libraries in the United States and Canada. For information on national libraries in other parts of the world, see the Libraries of the World section of this article. F1National Libraries in the United States The United States government maintains four national libraries, all based in or near Washington, D.C. These are the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Library of Education. The Library of Congress, established in 1800, is the largest and most comprehensive library in the world. It functions as the country's national library, even though the Congress of the United States has never officially recognized it as such. With collections totaling more than 24 million volumes and with services unmatched in scope by any other national library, the Library of Congress is one of the world's leading cultural institutions. Its primary function is to serve the U.S. Congress and its staff, but it provides extensive services to the general public as well. The Library of Congress also serves as the official copyright agency of the United States. In addition, the library collects materials from throughout the world in more than 450 languages, maintains one of the world's most comprehensive law libraries, and houses the world's largest collection of maps, atlases, printed and recorded music, motion pictures, and television programs. It also serves as the national library for the blind and physically handicapped, sponsors exhibitions on a variety of topics, and is a research center for the preservation and conservation of library materials. See Library of Congress. The National Agricultural Library is one of the world's largest agricultural research centers. Founded in 1862 as the departmental library for the United States Department of Agriculture, it was declared a national library by the U.S. Congress in 1962. The National Agricultural Library now serves to increase the availability and utilization of agricultural information for researchers, educators, policymakers, consumers of agricultural products, and the public. The National Library of Medicine is a division of the National Institutes of Health. It collects materials in all fields of the health sciences. With more than 5 million items in its collection, the National Library of Medicine is the world's largest research library devoted to a single scientific or professional field. The library serves physicians, nurses, hospitals, government agencies, commercial and nonprofit organizations, students, medical schools, and other libraries. The library also publishes Index Medicus, a listing of articles from more than 3,000 medical journals around the world. In addition, the National Library of Medicine maintains MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System), a vast system of computer databases that allows users around the world to search lists of publications and to retrieve factual information on specific medical questions. See National Institutes of Health: National Library of Medicine. The National Library of Education was established in 1994 as part of a school reform law entitled Goals 2000: Educate America Act. The National Library of Education is the central division of a national network of libraries, archives, and other providers of information in the field of education. Its primary function is to serve the staff of the U.S. Department of Education, but it also serves other federal employees, the Executive Office of the President, the United States Congress, schools, educational centers, the general public, and other libraries. F2State Libraries in the United States Most states also maintain libraries. As agencies of the state governments, the principal function of these libraries is to provide reference and loan services to governmental officials and staff. Most also offer limited services to the general public. In addition, they administer state and federal aid programs for all kinds of libraries, provide leadership and consultation for other libraries, and coordinate interlibrary lending networks for libraries within their given state. Most state libraries maintain archives divisions that collect and preserve official records and documents of state or provincial history. F3Other Government Libraries in the United States Many other departments and agencies of the U.S. federal government maintain their own libraries. Some of the largest of these are administered by the Department of Defense for the various branches of the armed services. Each branch of the United States military also maintains libraries on its bases around the world to provide U.S. military personnel with technical information and leisure reading materials. The United States Information Agency operates libraries in many foreign countries as part of an effort to promote U.S. interests abroad. Other important federal libraries are maintained by the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, the National Weather Service, the Office of Management and Budget, the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Smithsonian Institution also operates 17 libraries in its various branches, which collectively maintain more than 1.2 million volumes covering subjects such as African art, Native American history, and space exploration. F4National Libraries in Canada Canada's national government maintains three main libraries in the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario. These are the National Library of Canada, the Library of Parliament, and the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. In addition, the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec acts as the legal copyright depository for publications in the province of Québec. The National Library of Canada, established in 1953, provides facilities for scholarly research to the government and the public. The library's collection numbers more than 16 million items covering a wide range of subjects. Most of the library's collection deals with issues relating specifically to Canada, making it the world's foremost center for research in Canadian studies. The library publishes the Canadian Union Catalog, a listing of its collections and of the holdings of other major Canadian academic, public, and special libraries. The National Library of Canada also coordinates networks with other libraries in the country through which they share collections, technology, resources, and staff expertise. In addition, the library publishes Canadiana, a monthly and annual bibliography of new publications about Canada. The Library of Parliament, established in 1867, provides information, reference, and research services to the country's lawmakers and their staff members, parliamentary committees, and various legislative associations and delegations. It also offers information about the Canadian Parliament to the general public. The library's public information resources include reports on current events, legislative summaries, newspaper-clipping services, reading lists, and online databases. The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information is a major research center for information in all areas of science, technology, engineering, and medicine. Established in 1916 as the library of the National Research Council of Canada, the institute now serves the Canadian government as well as the industrial, medical, and academic communities of Canada. In addition to its main catalog, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information provides access to the catalog of the Canadian Agricultural Library. This catalog features books, reports, and conference proceedings on agricultural information around the world. The institute also publishes 14 international research journals in printed and electronic formats. F5National Archives The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government that selects, organizes, and preserves various public documents that it determines to be of enduring historical value. It also strives to make these materials easily accessible to the government and the public. The National Archives and Records Administration is located in Washington, D.C., and in College Park, Maryland. It preserves various treaties, laws, maps, charts, census data, presidential proclamations, executive orders, photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures, correspondence of government officials, computer data, and many other types of records. All of this amounts to a staggering amount of data, and the collection is steadily growing. In 1999 the National Archives held 4 billion pieces of paper; nearly 14 million still photographs and posters; more than 300,000 reels of motion-picture film; more than 5 million maps, charts, and architectural drawings; and more than 9 million aerial photographs. Among these documents are national treasures such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. Fewer than 3 percent of the government's records have enough lasting historical or legal significance to become a permanent part of the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration also oversees several presidential libraries located throughout the country. Presidential libraries preserve and make available the papers, records, and other historical materials of individual United States presidents and their administrations. Most U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover (president from 1929 to 1933) have been honored with their own presidential library, usually located in their home state. For example, the John F. Kennedy Library, located in Boston, Massachusetts, maintains more than 34 million manuscript pages (including 8.4 million pages of Kennedy's own papers), as well as photographs, printed materials, films and videos, audio tapes, and many other materials dedicated to preserving the memory of Kennedy. Most presidential libraries also sponsor educational programs, special exhibitions, lecture series, and other events designed to serve the public. Other presidential libraries in the United States include the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Freemont, Ohio; the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York; the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri; the Eisenhower Center in Abilene, Kansas; the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas; the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California; the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, Georgia; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California; and the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, selects, preserves, and makes available public and private records of historical significance to Canada and its citizens. The archives include government records, maps, photographs, private papers, architectural drawings, paintings, audio and visual materials, and computer data. The census records in the archives make the institution a primary resource for Canadians conducting genealogical research. In addition, the National Archives of Canada supports other research activities and sponsors exhibitions on Canadian history.

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