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3000 BCE
The Ancient Library: The Start of Storing Information
Ancient Libraries housed clay tablets,that held mostly economic and administrative information. There were also religious texts, gazetteers of ancient places and names, dictionaries of languages, and biographical dictionaries of kings. The most impressive ancient libraries excavated were found in Syria and Iraq,Ebla and Nineveh respectively. thousand tablets found at Ebla and were arranged in jars or on shelves. At Nineveh, 25-30 thousand tablets were uncovered and arranged by general subject. -
288 BCE
The Great Library of Alexandria
The most famous of all ancient libraries is the library Alexandria. It was created as a monument to Greek culture, that sought out to collect and make all the great works known to mankind available to scholars and other officials. The librarian at Alexandria was appointed by the King and served as a tutor to the royal family's children. He was also an advisor to the King because of his great wealth of knowledge. -
Jan 1, 800
Medieval Libraries: The Preservation of Literary Works During the Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages there was a huge decrease in the amount of literate peoples. The Catholic Church through Monasteries produced and stored manuscripts to preserve sacred texts. The concept of cataloging books and the development of a loan system was created at this time. The librarian would manage the copying of the manuscripts as well as the distribution of books. Monastery libraries were particularly strict about the return of books and made borrowers give a book for collateral. -
Jan 1, 1300
The University Library: Increasing Access for Student and Faculty USe
As literacy became more secularized in the 13th/14th-century Universities began to amass many books of many different genres for student and faculty use. These libraries however we extremely inconvenient. They were only open a few hours a week and had no heat or illumination. Books were attached to shelves and could only reach to the table below the shelf. The job of librarian during this time was very low ranking handled the books, If a book was missing, it would be replaced with his own money. -
Books and Libraries in Colonial America
Many immigrants to America were wealthy religious refugees. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first of many to require all male children to be taught to read and prepped for a job. New England Colonies were dedicated to the education of male children and females were educated in their home. Education was more widespread in the northern colonies than the south.Rev. Thomas Bray was known as the "Father of American Libraries" by organizing a society that sent books to primitives in the colonies. -
The Invention of Printing: Gabriel Naudè
Gabriel Naudè published the first textbook on how to develop a collection. He believed that the library should house every field of study and be open to the public. He thought the that there was no point in having large libraries if no one could access them. He also devised a simple check-out system. -
The Destruction of Libraries: Thirty Years' War
In the 1500 and 1600s books were still privileged to the wealthy and were often seen as tools of oppression. During the 30 Years War, many of the private and university libraries created were destroyed by religious and political uprisings. Common people had no high regard for the texts, and even Protestants cleaned their toilets with Catholic works. Although Protestant ideology stressed the importance of literacy books were still reserved for the wealthy. -
The First Endowed Library
46 Wealthy Quakers pooled their money and established the Redwood Library to "propagate knowledge". In fact, today this library has retained approximately 90% of its original collection. The Redwood was not a true public library however, it was a library company. It was a place in which stocks could be sold and shareholders jointly owned the building and the collection of the books. -
The Emergence of Social Libraries
In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution boomed through the US. This allowed the middle class to enjoy more affluent lifestyles and created their own libraries (minorities were not welcome in upper-class library companies). These were mostly based on ethnic background or religious affiliation. These social libraries were very popular during this time. -
The Creation of Public Libraries
Although Boston Public Library was the first Public library, Some of the most famous group of libraries was donated by Andrew Carnegie. In 1900-1915 He gave away 310 million dollars that created 1,689 public libraries around the United States. To ensure they lasted he made the city tax 10 percent of the grant in order to commit to permanently funding the town library. Andrew Carnegie was convinced that public libraries were essential to the development of the national character.
