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National Geographic : 2005 Jul
Contents
THE WORLD BY NUMBERS My Seven Library of Con gress Perhaps the largest and most comprehensive library in history, our collections include books, maps, music, movies, graphic arts, and more. The Library of Congress (reading room at right) symbolizes the link between knowledge and democracy. Princeton Univer sity Library I was free to roam the stacks of this wonderful browsing library both as an undergraduate and later as a professor. National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg All through the Soviet period braries were great havens and great storehouses of memory at a time when public culture was tightly con trolled. This collection and its curators shaped my own study of Rus sian history and culture. Helsinki University Library This is also the National Library of Finland-the only pre-revolutionary depository of the Rus sian Empire that ended up in the West after 1945. It's both a beau tiful and efficient place to work. I went there to study its Russian materials; I came away with a love for Finland. Vatican Library This beautiful library near the Sistine Chapel is a place for surprising discoveries. Here scholars can find gemlike collections that cover much of the open ing of the modern world. New York Public Library I learned about Russia from the strong collections here, but I also gained insight from the great variety of people that I found in the library's Slavic Reading Room. We'd sit side by side, quietly working. Then we'd all break for lunch to go to the nearby Automat-and argue. But as soon as we returned and passed between the library's stone lions, all was tranquil again. WEBSITE EXCLUSIVE Find our Research Division's favorite resources for our stories-including books and websites-in Features at nationalgeographic.com /magazine/0507. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * JULY 2005
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