Frequently Asked Questions: General

We encourage you to use local and online resources before reaching out to us with questions. Your local library is often able to respond to your question more quickly and is better equipped to identify resources locally available that will meet your needs.

If you have exhausted your resources locally, we can assist you through one of these methods:

• Ask a Librarian: Submit your question online and receive an email response from reference staff. 

• Chat: Live chat with reference staff. Main Reading Room staff (12-4pm ET) or Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room staff (12-2pm ET)

• Phone: Speak to reference staff. Please refer to the list of research centers and visit each research center's page to locate the phone number. 

• Mail: Address your questions to 

Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, D.C. 20540

Please note that off-site security screening may cause delays in responding to written correspondence. For this reason, we recommend that you use the online Ask a Librarian service when possible.

Please note, individual reading rooms have policies regarding the types of questions they are able to answer or reference services they provide. Each of the reading room pages and corresponding Ask a Librarian pages details this information