If you like books, you're probably a fan of libraries as well. When I saw The Library: A Fragile History, by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, at my local library, I immediately borrowed it. Thankfully, my library grants automatic renewals, because this book took me a few weeks to finish.
The Library: A Fragile History starts with a disturbing premise: libraries aren't fixed, unchanging temples of knowledge, but are as prone to destruction and decay as any other human endeavor. (The specific example cited in the Prologue describes the ruin of a sixteenth-century Holy Roman Emperor's library as described by the newly appointed librarian.) However, libraries have adapted and changed throughout history, and it's this process the authors trace in this book. (This book is primarily focused on Western culture, with little or no mention of any libraries or their equivalent elsewhere.) They look at some ancient libraries in the first chapter, including (but not limited to) the library of Alexandria. From there, the authors discuss the evolution of libraries, from collections of religious scrolls stored in chest for easy transport to the modern library. One of the great themes of this book is how collections shift as people's interest change. For centuries, collectors focused on religious, classical, or other scholarly texts, for personal use or at a monastery or university. Librarians and collectors might acquire works from other collectors, but what one person valued might be considered waste material by someone else. (For example, some collectors kept copies of pamphlets and had them bound.) Old books aren't always seen as valuable or kept under conditions that might preserve them. As we advance toward the modern era, fiction becomes more popular, especially as libraries become more accessible to the common person. However, collections may be censored for religious or political purposes.
Libraries have always had to adapt to their environments. Although books compete with plenty of other distractions in the twenty-first century, they will undoubtedly continue to evolve as long as readers and collectors exist.
1 comment:
It is a curious question whether there are libraries have developed in other cultures. I was recently discussing this with my son... were there anything like libraries in medieval China? There was a huge literate population, and many institutions that kept collections of books, but as far as I know, none of these were open to the public.
I write fantasy fiction, and as I construct worlds, it's easy to simply model them on what exists now, rather than researching to find out how other societies were organized. This doens't go just for libraries but other things such as taverns and hotels and funeral homes, not all of which always existed or existed everywhere.
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