THE CHANGING LIBRARIES

The Changing Libraries By: Steven Dorsey

From clay tablets to papyrus scrolls, from paper and pen to the printing press, our libraries have changed over 30,000 years.

The clay tablets were found in ancient Mesopotamia. A 30,000 year-old tablet has been discovered at the site of an ancient Sumerian city of Nippur. Later, papyrus scrolls were made in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The earliest large Greek library is attributed to Aristotle (4th century B.C.), but the greatest by Ptolemy 1 (3rd century B.C.), was found in the museum at Alexandria, Egypt. The copies of ancient works became the standard editions of which other ancient copyists and libraries depended on, and the basis of most manuscripts in European libraries. Another great Hellenic library was found at Pergamum, Turkey. Greek civilizations weren't the only ones with libraries, so were Muslim cities like Damascus and Baghdad.

China's first library was established in the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.). The Sui dynasty divided libraries into four parts; Confuscious classics, philosophy, history, and belles lettres (lasted until the 20th century A.D.). The libraries in the Middle ages were mostly found in monasteries and cathedrals. The printing press in the 15th century made books cost less. Private libraries were common, but there weren't many public libraries. In the 17th century, France's library, the Bibliotheque Nationale, was the first public library, and can be found in Paris. The first academic library in the U.S. is in the Harvard college founded by John Harvard in 1638.

The rest pretty much is history. The libraries that have developed in the U.S. have been collecting books for about 400 years, maybe a little more. Public libraries became very common, and now, the present libraries can be found in schools as well as a local library. Index cards were used to catalog the books until computers became cheap enough to purchase for the library. Then the index of books were loaded onto computers. Finally, libraries became what they are today.

SOURCES: Grolier's Encyclopedia 96

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