Treasure HUNT
Research is fundamental for nonfiction writing, but it’s also important for fiction – from anchoring a story accurately in a time period to providing a realistic or even true-to-life setting. National organizations like the Library of Congress, National Archives, and Smithsonian Institution are treasure troves for writers. They offer millions of items in their collections – in some cases, information you won’t find anywhere else – and, best of all, most can be accessed for free.
Contrary to what some may believe, you don’t have to live in the Washington, D.C., area to access the resources of these institutions. While not all materials are digitized, a substantial portion of what they offer can be found online. Some other organizations have facilities throughout the United States and even beyond.
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is part of the U.S. legislative branch. Just as its name implies, it serves as Congress’s library. But it also bills itself as the world’s largest library, with a vision that “all Americans are connected to the Library of Congress.”
The Library employs 3,000 staff and has more than 168 million items in its collections, including approximately 24.6 million cataloged books in its classification system. Other printed materials found in its “nonclassified print collections” include such things as incunabula (books printed before 1501), monographs, music, newspapers, pamphlets, and technical reports.
The bulk of its holdings – more than 128 million items – can be found in its “nonclassified-century African-American activists to images depicting historic covered bridges and Frank Lloyd Wright buildings to several centuries’ worth of cartoon drawings dating back to the late 1700s. Audio materials range from recordings documenting North American English dialects to oral histories of former slaves. There are also 900 free databases you can access anywhere. Some subscription-based databases that have been purchased by the Library can only be accessed onsite.
