Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp on the Library's 200th birthday, April 24, 2000. Also in honor of the Library's Bicentennial, two coins will be minted. A publication, The Library of Congress: Two Hundred Years, will be a comprehensive, illustrated history of the Library, to be published in April 2000 by Yale University Press. The Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress will be an illustrated one-volume reference work containing topical essays and approximately 150 shorter pieces that describe the Library's major collections. The restoration of the 1897 Thomas Jefferson Building will be reflected in the new Guide to the Library of Congress. BACKGROUND The Library of Congress, founded April 24, 1800, is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. It preserves a collection of 115 million items -- more than two-thirds of which are in media other than books.
