United States Senate Library

The United States Senate Library is the library of the United States Senate.

The United States Senate Librarian manages the Senate Library, which is under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate. Leona I. Faust has been the Senate Librarian since 2009. The Library is located in the Russell Senate Office Building in SR-B15.

The Senate Library was founded during the 2nd Congress (1791–1792) after a resolution directing the Secretary to "procure and deposit in his office, the laws of several states" for use by Senators. In the early years leading to the library officially becoming established, the library suffered two fires. The first fire occurred during the burning of Washington in 1814 when the British attacked Washington during the War of 1812 and sacked Capitol Hill.

To replace the collection, Thomas Jefferson offered his private library at cost. Jefferson's 6,487 volumes formed the heart of the new Library of Congress collection. The second fire occurred in 1851 and destroyed all but 20,000 volumes in the Library of Congress collection. The damage to the Library of Congress collections prompted the Senate to preserve its records by designating space in the Capitol for the Senate Library. The Senate decided to procure and install steel shelving to replace wooden shelving to fireproof their collection from future damage.

Secretaries oversaw the early collection of the library which included printed bills and resolutions, committee reports and other Senate documents. William Hickey, Chief Clerk of the Senate (1855–1866), had been collecting 10 copies of every Senate document since 1824. Starting to accumulate a vast collection, Hickey lobbied for a library to manage and preserve all of these documents for use by the Senate. Despite various attempts to establish a library, it was not until February 11, 1870 that the Senate designated three rooms (S-331, S-332, and S-333) in the Library of Congress for the Senate Library.

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