Pre-Classical Period

   The earliest known library was a collection of Babylonian clay tablets dating back to the 21st century BC. While it is likely there were earlier libraries in ancient Waset (Egypt), the earliest library documented in the Land of the Nile was that of Ramses III. This temple library, circa 1200 BC, was mentioned by the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, was the home to the renowned Assurbanipal library, circa 626? BC, in Hellenic Turkey.

   The library at Alexandria in Egypt was the most famous in the ancient world. Founded by Ptolemy I, the first Greek ruler of Egypt, some said it contained upwards of 500,000 manuscripts before it was partially burned down during the Alexandrine War in 47 BC. These Greek Pharaohs had such a love of ‘books’ that their law required each vessel arriving at Egyptian ports to be searched and all ‘books’ confiscated, copied at the library, and only the copies returned to the captain. The library drew artists, philosophers and scholars from every land making Alexandria the cultural center of the ancient western world.

   Other libraries of note before the Roman Empire were the sacred library at Jerusalem, the library at Pergamun which was founded or expanded by Eumenes II, and the library at Nalanda in India (founded by Narsimha Deva in the 6th century B.C.) which had so many books it was said to burn for 6 months when destroyed by Islamic zealots in 1200 A.D.

Classical Period

   The first Greek public library was established in 330BC to preserve accurate versions of the works of the great dramatists. Libraries were among the spoils of war brought back from the Roman conquests of Greece, Syria and Asia Minor in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. In Rome, the first public library was established by Caius Asinus Pollio circa 40 BC to be followed by the great library of Octavian which was destroyed in 80 AD, the Palatine library destroyed circa 190 AD, and the important Ulpian library founded during the reign of Trajan.

   There were also many fine private Roman libraries, but the only remains of the libraries of the Republic are fragments from Herculaneum. The Romans also brought book collections to the major cities of their empire.

Dark Ages

   Monasteries housed the early Christian libraries such as the fine Benedictine collection at Monte Cassino. Anglo-Saxon monks established libraries at York, Wearmouth, Canterbury and other locations in England and Ireland where some of the finest manuscript illuminations were produced. Most of the ancient Greek and Latin texts extant were preserved in medieval European monastic libraries, or scriptoriums, such as the one founded by St. Columban in the 6th century.

Middle Ages & Renaissance>

   In the 9th to 15th centuries, the Arabs collected and preserved many ancient texts. The Jews and Byzantines developed fine libraries during the medieval period. In 1257 the Sorbonne library was founded in Paris.

   In the 14th and 15th centuries, Charles V of France, Lorenzo de' Medici, and Federico, Duke of Urbino, all endowed wonderful libraries. The Vatican Library, founded in 1475, is the oldest public library in Europe. It’s first librarian, Platina, cataloged some 2,527 volumes. Today, the Vatican Library includes part of the Urbino library.

   Michelangelo designed the beautiful Laurentian Library in Florence; construction was begun in 1525. Many of the great university libraries such as those at Bologna, Prague, Oxford, and Heidelberg, were opened in the 14th cent.

Early American Libraries

   As early as 1653, a circulating library was opened in Boston. In 1731, the Library Company of Philadelphia was chartered as a public subscription library by the initiative of Benjamin Franklin. Other early subscription libraries included the Boston Athenaeum, the New York Society Library, and the Charleston (S.C.) Library Society. In 1833 the first tax-supported library in the country opened at Peterborough, N.H. The American Library Association was formed in 1876, and this organization spurred improvements in library methods and in the training of librarians.

Modern Libraries

   Libraries in the United States and Great Britain benefited greatly from the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie, who gave more than $65 million for public library buildings in the United States alone. He strengthened local interest by making the grants contingent upon public support: Carnegie built the building, the rest was up to the community.

   Among the innovations of the late 19th cent. were free public access to books (involving elaborate classification schemes such as the Dewey Decimal System) and branch libraries or deposit stations for books in many parts of cities. In the early 20th cent. traveling libraries, or “bookmobiles", began to take books to readers in rural or outlying areas.

   The first bookmobile in the US may be that of Mary L. Titcomb, the public librarian in Hagerstown, Maryland. Mary decides to make books available to many people who live far from the city. She first establishes small book stations in general stores, churches and homes throughout the area. In 1905 Mary designs the first horsedrawn "bookmobile" to be driven by library janitor Joshua Thomas, who routinely covered 500 square miles of backroad territory.