Archive for October 2009 (1 post)

“…Never to be afraid of a book”

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John Adams BuildingGreetings from the Science, Technology & Business Division!

We’re new here in the Library of Congress blog space and we are looking forward to a long relationship with you, our readers. The title of this post, “…Never to be afraid of a book,” is taken from a letter John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on May 26, 1817, and we found it appropriate for the journey on which we are about to embark today.

The Science, Technology & Business Division, otherwise known as ST&B, is located in the John Adams Building ( named after the second president of the United States). The John Adams Building (one of three Library buildings on Capitol Hill) contains 180 miles of shelving and can hold ten million volumes! We have around 13 acres of shelf space in this one building alone. We look forward to this journey with you as we discover and highlight materials from our collections, share our favorite finds, and spotlight exciting events that take place here at the Library. Over the next few posts we will explore how ST&B came to be and share with you some history about the John Adams Building, along with its art and architecture.

Your guides along this journey are Donna, a business digital reference specialist and Jennifer, a science digital reference specialist. Our aim is to help connect you to the Library’s collections in science and business and to the activities of ST&B. Basically we want to give you a look Inside Adams.

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”John Adams, second president of the United States of America
(The Works of John Adams, v.3: pg. 462)

The name of our blog, Inside Adams, is quite fitting in many ways. ST&B is located inside the John Adams Building. As the quote notes, we will dare to speak and write to you from Inside Adams about things that we find, read, think and do Inside Adams.

We end our first blog post with parting words from John Adams, “In such researches as these, let us all in our several departments cheerfully engage…” (The Works of John Adams, v.3: pg. 462)
We hope that you will participate with us on this journey and we look forward to your thoughts and questions.