A Young Iraqi books his seat in Congress Library

The Library of Congress in Washington, one of the biggest libraries in the US listed the book of the Iraqi writer and activist, Salam Ghanem Al – Najeeb titled “Abraham Lincoln, America’s hero and slaves’ rescuer” in the American history section. Salam confirmed that, the library had sent him an official consent about listing his book.
 
The Congress Library is the biggest library in the world, with 130 million different materials, 29 million books, printed materials in 460 languages and more than 460 million documents. It is considered the most important reference for legal subjects, maps, movies and music pieces.

Salam Ghanem is 28 years old, who managed to write a huge book on Abraham Lincoln and translated it to English, which received wide welcoming in the US. He is one of the many talented in Iraq. He received many prizes in photography and wrote many books in international and European political history.

The Congress Library was established in 1800 when the American president, John Adams signed an order to move the government from Valadvia to Washington. The congress devoted 5 thousand dollars for the library’s capital, but during the British invasion, they burned it, and within months, the president, Thomas Gefferson donated to rebuild it.

In 1815, the congress accepted Gefferson’s library, which contained 6487 books. From 1864 to 1897, Insoyrat Rand Sbaford was appointed responsible for the library ,who played a n outstanding role in developing it, as he asked each writer, who wanted to list his book to send 2 copies of his manuscript, which helped him to gather thousands of books in small period of time.

The new manager of the library asked to change its location because it couldn’t fit all the books, so in 1873, the congress ordered to build a new one. In 1886 the new building, designed by Jan Smith and Paul Pellars was submitted and approved. Fifty designers, painters and artists participated in the construction, and in November 1897 the library was opened and became the first public library.