That Eric Alper

The Library of Congress has selected 25 films for the National Film Registry due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage, the Library announced today.

The selections for 2025 date back to the silent film era with six silent films dating from 1896 to 1926 – a significant number of films in this class. The newest film added to the registry is from 2014 with filmmaker Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which included meticulous historical research at the Library of Congress to create visually striking scenery.

Iconic Hollywood films from the last 50 years selected for the registry this year include “The Karate Kid,” “Glory,” “Philadelphia,” “Inception,” and the teen comedy “Clueless.” Classic Hollywood selections include the 1954 musical “White Christmas” that enshrined the chart-topping song of the same name in American popular culture, and perhaps the last great musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood, “High Society” from 1956 featuring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Grace Kelly in her last movie.

Four documentaries were selected for the registry this year, including Ken Burns’ “Brooklyn Bridge,” Nancy Buirski’s “The Loving Story,” George Nierenberg’s “Say Amen, Somebody” and Danny Tedesco’s “The Wrecking Crew.”

“When we preserve films, we preserve American culture for generations to come. These selections for the National Film Registry show us that films are instrumental in capturing important parts of our nation’s story,” said Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen. “We are proud to continue this important work, adding a broad range of 25 films to the National Film Registry as a collective effort in the film community to protect our cinematic heritage.”

The selections for 2025 bring the number of titles in the registry to 925. Some of the film titles are among the 2 million moving image collection items held in the Library of Congress. Others are preserved in coordination with copyright holders or other film archives.

Looking back on “The Karate Kid,” actor Ralph Macchio said the characters were key to cementing the film in pop culture history.

“The magic of Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi and me as the Daniel LaRusso character, that sort of give and take, that instant soulful magic was happening from our first meeting, Macchio told the Library of Congress. “Those scenes in Miyagi’s yard, the chores, the waxing on of the car, the painting the fences, the sanding the floor, all of that is now a part of cinematic pop culture. For me, the heart and soul of the film is in those two characters.”

Writer and director Amy Heckerling recalled how she made the 1995 teen comedy and satire “Clueless,” which has been called a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic novel “Emma.”

“I’m often asked, how did I decide to make ‘Emma’ into an updated film, which is kind of backwards because what I wanted was to write the kind of characters that really amused me, people that were very comfortable, ardent and optimistic. I would get up, read the news and then just want to cry and be depressed. So, I thought, what if you really were always positive? How would that be? And what if you were doing things and you just knew that you were right?” Heckerling told the Library of Congress. “I remembered reading ‘Emma’ when I was in college, so I re-read it. It was like Jane Austen was pulling up from the grave and saying I already got it!”

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will host a television special Thursday, March 19, starting at 8 p.m. ET to screen a selection of films named to the registry this year. TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart, who is chair of the National Film Preservation Board, will introduce the films.

Stewart leads the board in studying and recommending films across a wide variety of genres and eras for the Librarian of Congress to consider for the registry.

“It is very meaningful that the National Film Registry is adding six silent film titles, showing the range of topics and styles in the earliest years of American filmmaking,” Stewart said. “And it is especially exciting to see that the top title nominated by the public for this year, ‘The Thing,’ has been added to the National Film Registry, along with ‘The Truman Show’ and ‘The Incredibles’ which also had very strong public support.”

Films Selected for the 2025 National Film Registry
(chronological order)

• The Tramp and the Dog (1896)
• The Oath of the Sword (1914)
• The Maid of McMillan (1916)
• The Lady (1925)
• Sparrows (1926)
• Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)
• White Christmas (1954)
• High Society (1956)
• Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
• Say Amen, Somebody (1982)
• The Thing (1982)
• The Big Chill (1983)
• The Karate Kid (1984)
• Glory (1989)
• Philadelphia (1993)
• Before Sunrise (1995)
• Clueless (1995)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• Frida (2002)
• The Hours (2002)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• The Wrecking Crew (2008)
• Inception (2010)
• The Loving Story (2011)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Public Nominations for the National Film Registry
The public submitted 7,559 titles for consideration this year. The public can submit nominations throughout the year on the Library’s web site. Nominations for next year will be accepted until Aug. 15, 2026. Cast your vote at loc.gov/film.
 

Ken Burns’ First Major Film Joins National Film Registry

“Brooklyn Bridge” is the first documentary by Ken Burns to join the National Film Registry. Burns recently discussed his inspiration for the film and his process with the Library of Congress.

“My best friend was a book distributor and he gave me a copy of David McCullough’s, ‘The Great Bridge,’ the epic story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I devoured it in one sitting. And I said, oh, we should make a story about what this book is about, not just about the construction, which that book was, but this century as a symbol of strength, ingenuity, vitality and promise. I had no idea that that it would take so many years of my time to do it,” Burns said. “I was just drawn to the story and the idea that you could wake the past up with old photographs and first-person voices, as well as a traditional third-person narrator.

“The ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ film was my first film that had sort of widespread distribution. And I can’t think of a day where I didn’t learn something new. I felt in some ways like every first film is reinventing the wheel. You can be influenced by other people, but you really, in the end, have to do it. Everything was how you wake the story up, how you take a photograph. And in those days it was all analog. We were hand shooting all of the archives. That was a very long process, traveling to them in person. There was no digitization. There was no getting it over the internet. It was all firsthand. We filmed for the ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ at 163 different sources.”

Coincidentally, the Library of Congress has been an important resource for nearly all of Burns’ films for archival footage and historical accuracy.

“With the exception of ‘The American Revolution,’ which is a subject that predates photography, we’ve used the Library of Congress in every single film we’ve worked on. I spent between eight and nine weeks, Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30 in the paper print collection, filming on an easel with gloves and magnets,” Burns said. 

“When I think about the National Film Registry and all the films that are contained in it, I think of it as a giant mirror of the United States, reflecting back all of the complexity, all of the intimacy, all of the variety of the people and ideas and forces and movements that have taken place over our history. And you realize what an extraordinary repository it is.”

Wes Anderson Draws on Library for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

Similarly, Anderson uses significant historical research to create visually striking stories and scenery, as displayed by “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” He too used the Library’s collections to create his film. 

“There’s a specific set of postcards in the Library of Congress Photochrome Prints collection. They’re photographs from the turn of the century and hand-tinted. When we were first starting to figure out how to tell this story, the views and images that we were looking for, the architecture and the landscapes that we wanted, they don’t exist anymore,” Anderson said. “We went through the entire Photochrome collection, which is a lot of images. We made our own versions of things, but much of what is in our film comes directly from that collection from the Library of Congress.”

The 2025 National Film Registry
(descriptions in chronological order)

“The Tramp and the Dog” (1896)                                                          
“The Tramp and the Dog,” a silent film from Chicago’s Selig Polyscope Company, is considered director William Selig’s most popular early work. Filmed in Rogers Park, it is recognized as the first commercial film made in Chicago. Previously a lost film, it was rediscovered in 2021 at the National Library of Norway. The film depicts a tramp who attempts to steal a pie from a backyard windowsill, only to be met by a broom-wielding housewife and her dog, who foils the crime. The film is one of the first known as “pants humor,” where a character loses (or almost loses) his pants during an altercation. This scene inspired future comedy gags showing drifters and tramps losing their pants to dogs chasing them.

“The Oath of the Sword” (1914)                                                                        
A three-reel silent drama, “The Oath of the Sword” depicts the tragic story of two young lovers separated by an ocean. Masao follows his ambitions, studying abroad at the University of California, Berkeley, while Hisa remains in Japan, caring for her ill father. This earliest known Asian American film production featured Japanese actors playing Japanese characters and was produced by the Los Angeles-based Japanese American Film Company. Made at a time when Hollywood studios were not yet the dominant storytellers of the American film industry, “The Oath of the Sword” highlights the significance of early independent film productions created by and for Asian American communities. James Card, the founding curator at the George Eastman Museum, acquired “The Oath of the Sword” in 1963. The museum made a black and white photochemical preservation in 1980. In 2023, a new preservation reproducing the original tinting was done in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum, and the film has since become widely admired.

“The Maid of McMillan” (1916)
Known to be the first student film on record, this whimsical, silent romance film was shot on campus in 1916 by students in the Thyrsus Dramatic Club at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Club members Donald Stewart (Class of 1917) and George D. Bartlett (Class of 1920) wrote the screenplay. The original nitrate print of “The Maid of McMillan” was rediscovered in 1982, and two 16mm prints were made; the original nitrate was likely destroyed at this time. In 2021, with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, one of those 16mm prints was scanned at 4k and reprinted onto 35mm helping to secure the film’s survival and legacy.

“The Lady” (1925)
When “The Lady” debuted in theaters in 1925, the silent film era had hit its stride, and this movie represents a powerhouse of artists at their peak. Director Frank Borzage was a well-established expert in drawing out intense expressions of deep emotion and longing in his actors. He did just that with the film’s lead actress, Norma Talmadge, also at the height of her career, both in front of and behind the camera. Talmadge produced “The Lady” through her production company and commissioned one of the most prolific screenwriters, Frances Marion, to deliver a heartfelt story of a woman seeking to find the son she had to give up, to protect him from his evil grandfather. “The Lady” was restored by the Library of Congress in 2022.

“Sparrows” (1926)
As a silent actress, producer and key founder in the creation of the American film industry, Mary Pickford’s performance in “Sparrows” represents her ability to master the genre she helped nourish: sentimental melodramas full of adventure and thrills, with dashes of comedy and heartfelt endings. Pickford plays Molly, the eldest orphan held within the swampy squalor of the Deep South, who moves heaven and earth to save the other orphan children from a Dickensian world of forced labor. The film takes some departures from the visual styles found in Pickford’s other films, invoking an unusual tone of despair while deploying camera angles and lighting akin to German Expressionist cinema. “Sparrows” was preserved by the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Mary Pickford Company in 2020.

“Ten Nights in a Barroom” (1926)                                                                     
Featuring an all-Black cast, “Ten Nights in a Barroom” was produced in 1926 by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia and is the earliest of only two surviving films made by the company. This silent film is based on the stage melodrama adapted from the 1854 novel “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There” by Timothy Shay Arthur. Released in 2015 by Kino Lorber as part of the five-disc set “Pioneers of African-American Cinema,” the compilation was produced by the Library of Congress, in association with the British Film Institute, George Eastman Museum, Museum of Modern Art, National Archives, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Southern Methodist University and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preserved by George Eastman Museum.

“White Christmas” (1954)                                                           
While the chart-topping song “White Christmas” was first performed by Bing Crosby for the 1942 film “Holiday Inn,” its composer, Irving Berlin, was later inspired to center the song in the 1954 musical “White Christmas.” Crosby, along with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen Rohe and director Michael Curtiz, embedded “White Christmas” in American popular culture as a best-selling single and the top-grossing film of 1954, as well as regular holiday viewing throughout the decades. The story of two World War II veterans-turned-entertainers and a singing sister act preparing a show for a retired general, the film and its grand musical numbers were captured in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount Pictures and first used for “White Christmas.”

“High Society” (1956)                                                                  
Often referred to as the last great musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood, “High Society” features an all-star cast including Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong (and his band), along with a memorable score of Cole Porter classics. Set in Newport, Rhode Island, the film showcases the Newport Jazz Festival (established in 1954) and features a remarkable version of Cole Porter’s “Now You Has Jazz.” It includes the first big-screen duet by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, singing “Well, Did You Evah?” This was Grace Kelly’s last movie before she retired from acting and married the Prince of Monaco; she wore her Cartier engagement ring while filming.

“Brooklyn Bridge” (1981)                                               
With “Brooklyn Bridge,” Ken Burns introduced himself to the American public, telling the story of the New York landmark’s construction. As with later subjects like the Civil War, jazz and baseball, Burns connects the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to American identity, values and aspirations. Released theatrically and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, “Brooklyn Bridge” marked the beginning of Burns’ influential career in public media. More than just a filmmaker, Burns has become a trusted public historian. His storytelling presents facts, but maybe more importantly, invites reflection on what America is, where it’s been, and where it’s going. His influence is felt not only in classrooms and through public broadcasting, but across generations who see history as something alive and relevant.

“Say Amen, Somebody” (1982)
George Nierenberg’s documentary is a celebration of the historical significance and spiritual power of gospel music. With inspirational music, joyful songs and brilliant singers, the movie focuses on the men and women who pioneered gospel music and strengthened its connections to African American community and religious life. Prior to production, Nierenberg, who is white, spent over a year in African American churches and communities, gaining the trust of the performers. Restored by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2020, the film features archival footage, photographs, stirring performances and reflections from the father of gospel Thomas A. Dorsey and its matron Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith. Nierenberg shows the struggles and sacrifices it takes to make a living in gospel, including criticism endured by women who sought to pursue careers as professional gospel singers while raising their families.

“The Thing” (1982)
Moody, stark, often funny and always chilling, this science fiction horror classic follows Antarctic scientists who uncover a long-dormant, malevolent extraterrestrial presence. “The Thing” revolutionized horror special effects and offers a brutally honest portrait of the results of paranoia and exhaustion when the unknown becomes inescapable. “The Thing” deftly adapts John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” and influenced “Stranger Things” and “Reservoir Dogs.” It remains a tense, thrilling and profoundly unsettling work of cinema.

“The Big Chill” (1983)
Lawrence Kasdan’s best picture-nominated “The Big Chill” offers an intimate portrait of friends reunited after the suicide of one of their own and features actors who defined cinema in the 1980s – Glenn Close, William Hurt, Jo Beth Williams, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum and Meg Tilly. This powerful ensemble portrays American stereotypes of the time – the yuppie, the drug dealer, the TV star – and deftly humanizes them. Through humor, tenderness, honesty and an amazing soundtrack, it shows formerly idealistic Americans making and dealing with the constant compromises of adulthood, while buoying one another with uncompromising love and friendship.

“The Karate Kid” (1984)
An intimate story about family and friendship, “The Karate Kid” also succeeds as a hero’s journey, a sports movie and a teen movie – a feel-good movie, but not without grit. The film offers clearly defined villains, romance and seemingly unachievable goals, but also an elegant character-driven drama that is relatable and touching. A father who has lost his son meets the displaced son of a single mother and teaches him about finding balance and avoiding the pitfalls of violence and revenge. Race and class issues are presented honestly and are dealt with reasonably. Our hero practices a lot, gets frustrated, gets hurt, but still succeeds. It’s as American as they come, and it’s a classic.

“Glory” (1989)
“Glory,” described by Leonard Maltin as “one of the finest historical dramas ever made,” portrays a historical account of the 54th Regiment, a unit of African American soldiers who fought for the North in the Civil War. Authorized by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the regiment consisted of an all-Black troop commanded by white officers. Matthew Broderick plays the young colonel who trains the troop, and Denzel Washington (in an Academy Award-winning performance) is among an impressive cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes and Andre Braugher. American Civil War historian James M. McPherson said the film “accomplishes a remarkable feat in sensitizing a lot of today’s Black students to the role that their ancestors played in the Civil War in winning their own freedom.”

“Philadelphia” (1993)                                                                  
“Philadelphia” stars Tom Hanks in one of the first mainstream studio movies to confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. In the film, law partner Andrew Beckett (Hanks) is fired from his firm when they discover that he is gay and has AIDS. He hires personal attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to help him with litigation against his former employer. Director Jonathan Demme is quoted as saying, “The film is not necessarily just about AIDS, but rather everyone in this country is entitled to justice.” The film won two Oscars: one for Hanks and the other for Bruce Springsteen’s original song, “The Streets of Philadelphia.” Through the song’s mainstream radio and MTV airplay, it brought the film and its conversation around the HIV/AIDS pandemic to a wider audience.

“Before Sunrise” (1995)                                                              
Richard Linklater has explored a wide range of narrative storytelling styles while consistently capturing ordinary, everyday American life. However, his innovative use of time as a defining and recurring cinematic tool has become one of his most significant accomplishments. As the first film in his “Before” trilogy – three films, each shot nine years apart – “Before Sunrise” unfolds as one of cinema’s most sustained explorations of love and the passage of time, highlighting the human experience through chance encounters and conversation. With his critically acclaimed 12-year production of the film “Boyhood” (2014) and a new 20-year planned production underway, his unique use of the medium of film to demonstrate time passing demonstrates an unprecedented investment in actors and narrative storytelling.

“Clueless” (1995)                                                             
A satire, comedy and loose Jane Austen literary adaptation dressed in teen movie designer clothing, “Clueless,” directed by Amy Heckerling, rewards both the casual and hyper-analytical viewer. It’s impossible to miss its peak-1990s colorful, high-energy, soundtrack-focused on-screen dynamism, and repeated viewings reveal its unpretentiously presented and extraordinarily layered and biting social commentary about class, privilege and power structures. Heckerling and the incredible cast never talk down to the audience, creating main characters that viewers root for, despite the obvious digs at the ultrarich. The film centers on Cher (Alicia Silverstone) as a well-intentioned, fashion-obsessed high school student who is convinced she has life figured out. In the age of MTV, the film’s popularity launched Paul Rudd’s career and Silverstone’s iconic-1990s status. The soundtrack, curated by Karyn Rachtman, helped solidify the film as a time capsule of clothing, music, dialogue and teenage life.

“The Truman Show” (1998)
Before social media and reality television, there was “The Truman Show.” Jim Carrey breaks from his usual comedic roles to star in this dramatic film about a man who, unbeknownst to him, is living his life on a soundstage filmed for a popular reality show. Adopted at birth by the television studio, Truman Burbank (Carrey) grew up in the (fictitious) town of Seahaven Island with his family and friends playing roles (paid actors). Cameras are all over the soundstage and follow his activities 24/7. Almost 30 years since its release, the film continues to be a study in sociology, philosophy and psychology, and has inspired university classes on media influence, the human condition and reality television.

“Frida” (2002)
Salma Hayek produced and starred in this biopic of Frida Kahlo, adapted from the book “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera. The film explores Kahlo’s rise as an artist in Mexico City and the impact disability and chronic pain from an accident as a young adult had on her life and work. The film centers around her tumultuous and passionate relationships, most significantly with her husband, painter Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actress. It won awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score for Elliot Goldenthal, who also won a Golden Globe in the same category.

“The Hours” (2002)
Director Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours” weaves the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” into three women’s stories of loneliness, depression and suicide. Virginia Woolf, played by Nicole Kidman (who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her performance), is working on the novel while struggling with what is now known as bipolar disorder. Laura, played by Julianne Moore (nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), is unfulfilled in her life as a 1950s housewife and mother. Clarissa (played by Meryl Streep) is – like Mrs. Dalloway – planning a party, but for her close friend who is dying of AIDS. The film is based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It earned nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won a Golden Globe for Best Picture.

“The Incredibles” (2004)                                                 
With an all-star cast and memorable soundtrack, this Academy Award-winning Pixar hit uses thrilling action sequences to tell the story of a family trying to live normal lives while hiding their superpowers. For the first time, Pixar hired an outside director, Brad Bird, who drew inspiration from spy films and comic books from the 1960s. The animation team developed a new design element to capture realistic human anatomy, hair, skin and clothing, which Pixar struggled with in early films like “Toy Story.” The film spawned merchandise, video games, Lego sets and more. The sequel, “Incredibles 2,” was also a huge hit, and together, both films generated almost $2 billion at the box office.

“The Wrecking Crew” (2008)                                                     
“The Wrecking Crew” is a documentary that showcases a group of Los Angeles studio musicians who played on many hit songs and albums of the 1960s and early 1970s, including “California Dreamin’,” “The Beat Goes On,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” Through interviews, music, footage and his own narration, director Denny Tedesco reveals how the Wrecking Crew members – including his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco – were the unsung heroes of some of America’s most famous songs. Production for the film began in 1996, and the film was completed in 2008. Due to the high cost of song licenses, the official release was delayed until 2015, when a successful Kickstarter campaign raised over $300,000 to pay for the music rights.

“Inception” (2010)                                                                         
Writer and director Christopher Nolan once again challenges audiences with multiple interconnected narrative layers while delivering thrilling action sequences and stunning visual effects. “Inception” asks the question, “Can you alter a person’s thoughts by manipulating their dreams?” Taking almost 10 years to write, the film was praised for its aesthetic significance and Nolan’s ability to create scenes using cameras rather than computer-generated imagery. A metaphysical heist film with an emotional core driven by grief and guilt, “Inception” offers a meditation on how dreams influence identity, and it resonates deeply in an age of digital simulation, blurred realities and uncertainty. The film earned $830 million at the box office and won four Academy Awards.

“The Loving Story” (2011)
Nancy Buirski’s acclaimed documentary gives an in-depth and deeply personal look at the true story of Richard Loving (a white man) and Mildred Loving (a Black and Native American woman), who were forbidden by law to marry in the state of Virginia in the 1960s. Their Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia, was one of the most significant in history, and paved the way for future multiracial couples to marry. The movie captures the immense challenges the Lovings faced to keep their family and marriage together, through a combination of 16mm footage, personal photographs, accounts from their lawyers and family members, and audio from the Supreme Court oral arguments.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014)
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” stands as one of Wes Anderson’s most successful films and demonstrates his own brand of unique craftsmanship, resulting in a visually striking and emotionally resonant story. As one of the most stylistically distinctive American filmmakers of the last half-century, Anderson uses historically accurate color and architecture to paint scenes to elicit nostalgia and longing from audiences, while at the same time weaving in political and social upheaval into the film. The film is an example of Anderson as a unique artist who uses whimsy, melancholy, innovative storytelling and a great deal of historical research, which is on display in this visually rich gem of a movie.

About the National Film Registry

Congress established the National Film Preservation Board in 1988 to advise the Librarian of Congress on national preservation policies and annual selections for the National Film Registry, and the Library was given a mandate to preserve the mint record of America’s cinematic heritage.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 motion pictures to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The films must be at least 10 years old. More information about the National Film Registry can be found at loc.gov/film.

The Librarian makes the annual registry selections after conferring with the distinguished members of the National Film Preservation Board and a cadre of Library specialists. Also considered were 7,559 titles nominated by the public. Nominations for next year will be accepted through Aug. 15, 2026, at loc.gov/film.

Many titles named to the registry have already been preserved by the copyright holders, filmmakers or other archives. In cases where a selected title has not already been preserved, the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center works to ensure the film will be preserved by some entity and available for future generations, either through the Library’s motion picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion picture studios and independent filmmakers.

The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center is located at the Library’s Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, a state-of-the-art facility where the nation’s library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings (loc.gov/avconservation). It is home to more than 10.8 million collection items.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.