The History of the Library

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a library is "a place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, referencing, and lending."

True, but libraries are so much more then that. They are cultural centers of a community, safe havens for those who wish a respite, and study centers for those in need of knowledge on a particular subject. Libraries are extremely important in our modern society, even with the advent of the internet, but how did they become so important? And how are they dealing with today's technological advances? Has the rise of free, always available information on the internet helped or harmed them?

To understand how libraries became so preeminent, we should learn more about their history. The definition of what is a "true library" is under dispute, so selecting one library as the very first one is nearly impossible. By technical definition, the first libraries existed in the city-states of Sumer as mainly collections of records regarding commercial transactions. The Persian empire archived religious and scientific works. Private libraries of fiction and nonfiction have been found in the ruins of ancient Greece. Many believe, however, that we can safely assume Rome to be the source of the modern public library. In Rome, rooms filled to capacity with scrolls were open directly to readers, unlike Greek libraries. Although lending was not common in Rome, some evidence of lending practices still survive.

Let's fast-forward to the eighteenth century. The year is 1742. Benjamin Franklin has pioneered the idea of the "social library" as a place where books were shared between members, and this first library has just been incorporated as The Library Company of Philadelphia. Buying stock in the company would make one a member of the library. Soon this idea caught fire and spread across the United States, spawning many new variations. One of these, called circulating libraries, introduced the concept of including popular fiction among more intellectual works. School libraries spearheaded the idea of public funding for libraries.

Now, with all these books, you need some way to classify them. The explosion in popularity for libraries led to the need for an organized, universal system of classification. A man named Melvil Dewey stepped up to the plate and created the Dewey Decimal Classification system, an arrangement still in use to this day. Some of the many methods put into place by Dewey include the concept of overdue fines, the arrangement of books based on their classification (or "call") numbers, long open hours, and card catalogs.

A second system of classification used mainly by research and academic libraries is the Library of Congress Classification scheme. It was created in 1897 by a man named Herbert Putnam. In this system, books are divided into twenty-one classes, each identified by a letter of the alphabet. Each of these classes are divided into subclasses and these subclasses are divided even further.

A guiding force behind the expansion of the modern public library in the United States was industrialist and curator Andrew Carnegie. He believed that all people had a basic right to knowledge, and that libraries should be accessible to everyone. He pushed hard for federally-funded libraries, but was attacked by those who felt taxes should not be used for this purpose. However, by 1920, 1,700 new libraries had been built all across America and 800 others had been erected in Europe.

Today, our libraries face new challenges and new opportunities. More and more people get their information off a computer at home--which has raised fears about brick-and-mortar libraries soon becoming obsolete. Libraries are forced to deal with cutbacks in federal funding and are relying more and more on donations. The arrival of the computer age has raised questions about what belongs in a library and what doesn't. Should libraries use precious funds to buy teen gossip magazines to lure in teenagers, or should they use the money for academic materials and hope the teens will come anyway? How much of their budget should go into computers? In light of recent cutbacks in funding, how many new books can libraries afford to bring in per month?

Fortunately, there are upsides to all this. Computerized card catalogs make books easier to find than ever before. Computer terminals lure in patrons who normally would not be enticed to come. Proponents of computerizing point out the fact that libraries are gaining users despite the rise of the internet. Also, copyrighted books will not be available on the Web; only physical libraries can supply patrons with those.

Libraries are the foundation of public knowlege in our society. Even with the arrival of the internet, libraries have seen soaring attendence rates compared to just a few years ago. Many communities are committed to keeping their libraries alive and will step in to provide them with extra funds if need be. Libraries are looking to the future with determination to integrate technology into their systems. With a little help from all of us, they will be able to do so.

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