The 7 Most Impressive Libraries Throughout History

Posted by Queuebot in Book & Lit on June 16, 2009 at 3:42 am


Ever since the dawn of civilization, men have demonstrated their cultural sophistication, scientific knowledge and philosophical aptitude in written word kept in libraries for peers and, less often, the public, to access and review.

We have a tendency to assume that knowledge and the availability thereof is a modern concept, but in actuality the huge Great Library of Alexandria and the Celsus library in Ephesus prove that the concept of libraries is an ancient one.

We tend to take for granted the notion that the people of the world can or should be taught to read. The ability to read is even used as an indicator of poverty and development. In 1998, the UN defined 80% of the world population as literate, defined as the ability to read and write a simple sentence in a language. It was not always thus. In ancient times, literacy was the trade secret of professional scribes.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Arby.


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3 comments to "The 7 Most Impressive Libraries Throughout History"

  1. OddNumber
    June 16th, 2009 at 8:34 am

    Just last week I was talking about going to the Library of Congress because they have access to a research article I wanted that is held in only 32 libraries worldwide. Amazing.

    Between the Library of Congress and the British Library there are 180 million holdings, 54 million of those being books according to wikipedia. I wonder how many of those books have been opened.

  2. horned_one24
    June 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what information was lost forever when the Great Library in Alexandria was destroyed.

  3. Ali S.
    June 19th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    I'm such a Bibliophile that this just made my freakin' day! :D


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