One-Sixth of Library of Congress Materials Misplaced

Photo of the Library of Congress' Jefferson Building by Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

WE'VE ALL LOST a book or two. They turn up in the darnedest places. Of course, we're not the Library of Congress. And we probably haven't misplaced 13 percent of a 135 million-item collection.

Oops.

A survey to be made public at a congressional hearing today says that about one-sixth of the library's holdings weren't where they were supposed to be because of problems with systems for shelving and retrieving materials, The Post's James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott report:

Investigators for the congressional library have told lawmakers on a House oversight committee that its review of the retrieval system for the general collection concluded that a 17 percent of materials requested could not be found.

"A subsequent review found 4 percent were either on nearby shelves, checked out to the public or marked with the wrong call numbers. But it remains deeply troubling that nearly 13 percent are unaccounted for by library officials," said Howard Gantman, staff director of the joint congressional committee on the library.

Officials say they're ratcheting up efforts to find the books and are conducting a full inventory. However, that inventory began in 2002 and is only 20 percent complete.

Particularly troubling in Grimaldi and Trescott's report is this detail: 42 percent of requests at the library last year were made on paper call slips. Apparently, not only can you investigate history at the Library of Congress, you can experience it, too.

» "Materials Missing At Library Of Congress" [WaPo]