History of library
and information science profession:
History of
libraries
The history of libraries began
with the first efforts to organize collections of documents. Topics of interest include accessibility of the
collection, acquisition of materials, arrangement and finding tools, the book
trade, the influence of the physical properties of the different writing
materials, language distribution, role in education, rates of literacy,
budgets, staffing, libraries for specially targeted audiences, architectural
merit, patterns of usage, and the role of libraries in a nation's cultural
heritage, and the role of government, church or private sponsorship. Since the
1960s issues of computerization and digitization come to the fore.
Early libraries
The
first libraries consisted of archives of
the earliest form of writing—the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered
in temple rooms in Sumer, some dating back to 2600 bc, These archives, which
mainly consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark
the end of prehistory and
the start of history. Things were much the same in the
government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt. There is
also evidence of libraries at Nippur about
1900 BC and those at Nineveh about
700 BC showing a library
classification system.
Over
30,000 clay tablets from the Library of
Ashurbanipal have been discovered at Nineveh
Classical period
The Library of
Alexandria, in Egypt,
was the largest and most significant great library of
the ancient world, its construction in the 3rd
century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt
The
Ming Dynasty in 1407 founded the imperial library, the Wen Yuan Pavilion. It
also sponsored the massive compilation of the Yongle
Encyclopedia, containing 11,000 volumes including copies of over
7000 books. It was soon destroyed, but similar very large compilations appeared
in 1725 and 1772.
Late Antiquity
During
the Late Antiquity and Middle Ages periods, there was no Rome
of the kind that ruled the Mediterranean for
centuries and spawned the culture that produced twenty-eight public libraries
in the urbs Roma. The empire had been divided then later re-united again
under Constantine the
Great who moved the capital of the Roman Empire in 330
AD to the city of Byzantium which was
renamed Constantinople.
In Byzantium Europe . A
fire in 477 consumed the entire library but it was rebuilt only to be burned
again in 726, 1204, and in 1453 when Constantinople
fell to the Ottoman Turks.
Islamic lands
The
first libraries in Muslim lands were not necessarily for the public, but they
contained much knowledge. The need for the preservation of the
Quran, the Muslim Holy Book, and the Traditions of the Muhammad, the Prophet of
Islam is what led to the collection of writings in the Muslim world. Where
traditions and history used to be oral, the need to preserve the words of the
Quran necessitated a method of preserving the words in something other than
orally.
Mosques
that were the center of everything in an Muslim societies day to day life
became also libraries that stored and preserved all knowledge, from the Quran
to books on religion, philosophy and science. “Under the Abbasids, Muslims
formed the vanguard of civilization. With the discovery of paper, the Muslim
world quickly began to progress in its development of libraries, and “libraries
(royal, public, specialized, private) had become common and bookmen (authors,
translators, copiers, illuminators, librarians, booksellers' collectors) from
all classes and sections of society, of all nationalities and ethnic
backgrounds, vied with each other in the production and distribution of books.
European middle Ages
In
the Early Middle Ages,
monastery libraries developed, such as the important one at the Abbey of
Montecassino in Italy Paris
In
European libraries, bookcases were arranged parallel to and against the walls.
This "wall system" was first introduced on a large scale in Spain
Also,
in Eastern
Christianity monastery libraries kept important manuscripts.
The most important of them were the ones in the monasteries of Mount Athos for Orthodox Christians,
and the library of the Saint Catherine's
Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt for the Coptic Church.
Renaissance
From
the 15th century in central and northern Italy
In
Rome, the papal collections were brought together by Pope Nicholas V, in
separate Greek and Latin libraries, and housed by Pope Sixtus IV, who
consigned the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana to
the care of his librarian, the humanist Bartolomeo Platina in
February 1475.
Tianyi
Chamber, founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming Dynasty, is the
oldest existing library in China
Enlightenment era libraries
The
17th and 18th centuries include what is known as a golden age of libraries;
during this some of the more important libraries were founded in Europe . Francis Trigge
Chained Library of St. Wulfram's Church, Grantham, Lincolnshire was
founded in 1598 by the rector of nearby Welbourne. Thomas Bodley founded
the Bodleian Library,
which was open to the "whole republic of the learned", Norwich City library was established in 1608 and
the British Library was
established in 1753.
Subscription libraries
Unlike
a public library,
access was often restricted to members. Some of the earliest such institutions
were founded in late 17th century England
Private libraries
The
Liverpool Subscription
library was a gentlemen only library. In 1798, it was renamed
the Athenaeum when it was rebuilt with a newsroom and coffeehouse. It had an
entrance fee of one guinea and annual subscription of five shillings. An
analysis of the registers for the first twelve years provides glimpses of middle-class
reading habits in a mercantile community at this period. The largest and most
popular sections of the library were History, Antiquities, and Geography, with
283 titles and 6,121 borrowings, and Belles Letters, with 238 titles and 3,313
borrowings.
National libraries
The
first true national library was founded in 1753 as part of the British Museum. This new
institution was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to
neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect
everything.
Sloane's
collection included some 40,000 printed books and 7,000 manuscripts, as well
as prints and
drawings. The British Museum Act
1753 also incorporated the Cotton library and
the Harleian library.
These were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various British monarchs.
The
first exhibition galleries and reading room for
scholars opened on 15 January 1759, and in 1757, King George II granted
it the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring
that the Museum's library would expand indefinitely.
The modern public library
Although
by the mid-19th century, England
could claim 274 subscription
libraries and Scotland ,
266, the foundation of the modern public library system in Britain United Kingdom
Another
important act was the Education Act 1870, which
increased literacy and thereby the demand for libraries. By 1877, more than 75
cities had established free libraries, and by 1900 the number had reached 300
this finally marks the start of the public library as we know it. The first
tax-supported public library in the United States
was Peterborough, New Hampshire (1833)
first supported by state funds then an "Act providing for the
Establishment of Public Libraries" in 1849.
Expansion
The year 1876 is key in the history
of librarianship in the United
States
20th Century
In the 20th Century,
many public libraries were built in different Modernist architecture styles,
some more functional, others more representative. For many of these buildings,
the quality of the interior spaces, their lighting and atmosphere, was becoming
more significant than the façade design of the library building. Modernist
architects like Alvar Aalto put great emphasis on the comfort and
usability of library spaces. The Municipal Library he built 1958-62 for the
German city of Wolfsburg features
a great central room for which he used a series of specially designed skylights
to bring in natural light, even though all the walls are covered with books.
21st century
The digital age has transformed how information is accessed
and retrieved. "The library is now a part of a complex and dynamic
educational, recreational, and informational infrastructure. Mobile devices and applications with
wireless networking, high-speed computers and networks, and the computing cloud
have deeply impacted and developed information science and information
services. The evolution of the
library sciences maintains its mission of access equity and community space, as
well as, the new means for information retrieval called Information Literacy Skills.
All catalogues, databases, and a growing number of books are all available on
the Internet. Information literacy is the ability to "determine the
extent of information needed, access the needed information effectively and
efficiently, evaluate information and its sources critically, incorporate
selected information into one’s knowledge base, use information effectively to
accomplish a specific purpose, and understand the economic, legal, and social
issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information
ethically and legally."
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