HISTORY
The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal was located in Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. It was a collection of thousands of clay tablets including the famous Epic of Gilgamesh.
Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC by a coalition of Babylonians, Scythians and Medes. The massive ancient library was burnt by the Medes. However, unlike a library containing organic documents, the fires caused the approx 30,000 clay cuneiform tablets to become partially baked. This potentially destructive event helped preserve the tablets.
The first public library in Athens opened in 330 BC because so many people wanted to read Greek tragedy plays, such as Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
The Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (323–283 BC) or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II (283–246 BC).
Under the decree of Ptolemy II, all ships visiting Alexandria were obliged to surrender their books to the library and be copied. The original would be kept in the library and the copy given back to the owner.
At its peak the Alexandria library had perhaps half a million scrolls, many of them different versions of the same text. Such a mass of material demanded the beginning of the science of information retrieval. In about 260 BC Callimachus, a distinguished author, compiled a catalog of the library which itself ran to 120 scrolls.
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| Artistic rendering of the Library of Alexandria, based on some archaeological evidence |
Rome’s first public library, the Anla Libertatis, was established by Asinius Pollio (75 BC – AD 4). Pollio was an orator, poet and soldier. He sought to create a public library that increased the prestige of Rome and rivalled the one in Alexandria. Pollios’s library was centrally located near the Forum Romanum. It was the first to employ an architectural design that separated works into Greek and Latin.
The eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD buried the city of Pompeii's library in ash. Texts from that library are now being read for the first time in two thousand years.
The Alexandra public library, "The Center of Western Culture," with 300,000 ancient papyrus scrolls, was completely destroyed by Arab invaders in 642.
The eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD buried the city of Pompeii's library in ash. Texts from that library are now being read for the first time in two thousand years.
The Alexandra public library, "The Center of Western Culture," with 300,000 ancient papyrus scrolls, was completely destroyed by Arab invaders in 642.
The oldest library in the world is the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, which was founded in 859AD by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a Tunisian merchant. The library has remained continuously open to scholars since its inception.
In the tenth century, the Grand Vizier of Persia took his entire library with him wherever he went. The 117,000-volume library was carried by 400 camels trained to walk in alphabetical order.
The Nomenclator was a printed catalogue of the holdings of the Leiden University Library, which was founded in 1587. The catalogue was compiled by Petrus Bertius, a professor of theology at the university. It was published on May 24, 1595, and it was the first printed catalogue of any institutional library in the world. The Nomenclator was a groundbreaking work, and it helped to make the Leiden University Library one of the most important libraries in Europe.
The Nomenclator was organized by author, and it included entries for both printed and manuscript books. It was a comprehensive and accurate catalogue, and it was a valuable resource for scholars and students. The Nomenclator was reprinted several times in the 17th century, and it remained in use until the early 18th century.
John Harvard, a clergyman, founded the Harvard University Library with a collection of 260 books in 1638. The library now has more than 15 million books.
The first library in America, the Library Company of Philadelphia, was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin. The newly founded Library Company ordered its first books the following year, mostly theological and educational tomes and signed a contract with its first librarian on November 14, 1732.
By 1741 The Library Company of Philadelphia also included works on exploration, geography, history, poetry and science. The success of this library encouraged the opening of libraries in other American cities.
The building of the circular Radcliffe Camera library at Oxford University began in 1737. Francis Wise (1695-1767), the first librarian, tried to deter readers by putting a padlock on the door.
A fire destroyed most of Harvard Library’s collection in 1764. Only a small number of books were spared, including 144 that were checked out at the time. One of them, the Complete History of England with the Lives of All the Kings and Queens Thereof, Volume 3, was found and returned in 1997.
The United States Library of Congress, the de facto national library of the United States, was established in 1800 when President John Adams signed legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.”
After the Library of Congress was burned by the British in 1814, Thomas Jefferson offered his entire personal library as a replacement—more than doubling the previous size of the library to 6,487 volumes. Jefferson's scholarly collection soon helped transform a niche library into a national library.
The first public library in the UK to be supported by public rates was founded in Campfield, in the centre of Manchester. Its first chief librarian Edward Edwards - the "father" of the public library movement - was joined by Charles Dickens and fellow author William Thackeray for the opening on September 5, 1852.
Before Melvil Dewey published his decimal-based system of classification in 1876, books in most US libraries were arranged by height and order of acquisition.
Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System, was kicked out of the American Library Association for sexually harassing women.
The benefactions of Andrew Carnegie in Britain were particularly important in the development of public libraries, the first of his many gifts in this field being to Dunfermline in 1882.
The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public on November 1, 1897. The Library was housed before in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Pack Horse Library Initiative to deliver books to remote locations. Mainly women, these "Pack Horse Librarians" would deliver books on horseback, often over rough terrain.
A book borrowed in 1668 from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, was not returned for 288 years, making it the world’s most overdue library loan. The work, on the Archbishop of Bremen, was found in the library at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, home of the Marquess of Cholmondeley. No fine was levied.
America's most overdue library book, Dr. J. Currie's Febrile Diseases, was returned to the University of Cincinnati Medical Library in 1968. It had been checked out 145 years earlier in 1823 by a Mr. M. Dodd and was returned by his great-grandson, Richard Dodd. The fine, estimated at $2,264, was waived.
The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the national library was part of the British Museum, which provided the bulk of the holdings of the new library,
The British Library increases its shelving by an average of 6 miles (9.65 km) each year. It receives copies of all books produced in the UK and Ireland, and receives over 8000 new publications each day.
An organized mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on May 31, 1981. They destroyed over 97,000 items in one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the 20th century.
George Washington borrowed The Law of Nations from the New York Society Library and didn't return it. The Mount Vernon estate returned the book in 2010 (221 years overdue) after the Head librarian joked they were "not actively pursuing the overdue fines," they would appreciate having it back.
The Library of Congress is the largest in the world with more than 162 million items on approx 838 miles of shelves.
The Russian State Library in Moscow is the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world, behind the Library of Congress. Its collection of more than 43 million items in 248 languages includes more than 17 million books, brochures, and serials; 13 million journals; and 650,000 newspapers.
The current library at Alexandria has a recorded memory of the all the web pages on every website on the Internet since it started in 1996.
There are more public libraries than McDonald's in the USA and over half of adults have library cards.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
The United States Library of Congress, the de facto national library of the United States, was established in 1800 when President John Adams signed legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.”
After the Library of Congress was burned by the British in 1814, Thomas Jefferson offered his entire personal library as a replacement—more than doubling the previous size of the library to 6,487 volumes. Jefferson's scholarly collection soon helped transform a niche library into a national library.
The first public library in the UK to be supported by public rates was founded in Campfield, in the centre of Manchester. Its first chief librarian Edward Edwards - the "father" of the public library movement - was joined by Charles Dickens and fellow author William Thackeray for the opening on September 5, 1852.
Before Melvil Dewey published his decimal-based system of classification in 1876, books in most US libraries were arranged by height and order of acquisition.
Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System, was kicked out of the American Library Association for sexually harassing women.
The benefactions of Andrew Carnegie in Britain were particularly important in the development of public libraries, the first of his many gifts in this field being to Dunfermline in 1882.
The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public on November 1, 1897. The Library was housed before in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Pack Horse Library Initiative to deliver books to remote locations. Mainly women, these "Pack Horse Librarians" would deliver books on horseback, often over rough terrain.
A book borrowed in 1668 from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, was not returned for 288 years, making it the world’s most overdue library loan. The work, on the Archbishop of Bremen, was found in the library at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, home of the Marquess of Cholmondeley. No fine was levied.
America's most overdue library book, Dr. J. Currie's Febrile Diseases, was returned to the University of Cincinnati Medical Library in 1968. It had been checked out 145 years earlier in 1823 by a Mr. M. Dodd and was returned by his great-grandson, Richard Dodd. The fine, estimated at $2,264, was waived.
The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the national library was part of the British Museum, which provided the bulk of the holdings of the new library,
The British Library increases its shelving by an average of 6 miles (9.65 km) each year. It receives copies of all books produced in the UK and Ireland, and receives over 8000 new publications each day.
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| The British Museum Reading Room.Author Diliff Wikipedia Commons |
George Washington borrowed The Law of Nations from the New York Society Library and didn't return it. The Mount Vernon estate returned the book in 2010 (221 years overdue) after the Head librarian joked they were "not actively pursuing the overdue fines," they would appreciate having it back.
FUN LIBRARY FACTS
The Library of Congress is the largest in the world with more than 162 million items on approx 838 miles of shelves.
The Russian State Library in Moscow is the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world, behind the Library of Congress. Its collection of more than 43 million items in 248 languages includes more than 17 million books, brochures, and serials; 13 million journals; and 650,000 newspapers.
The current library at Alexandria has a recorded memory of the all the web pages on every website on the Internet since it started in 1996.
There are more public libraries than McDonald's in the USA and over half of adults have library cards.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
There are 13 secret library apartments in the New York Public Library system, leftover from when library custodians lived in them.
If you publish a book in Norway, the government will buy 1000 copies (1,500 if a children's book) and distribute them to libraries throughout the country.
In Kenya, there is a Camel Mobile Library—camels transport books from the capital to surrounding villages that are up to 248 miles away.
All of the books in you see Dumbledore's office are just the Yellow Pages rebound to look old.
Source A Library Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey
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