Page 34 - DLIS105_REFERENCE_SOURCES_AND_SERVICES

Unit 2: Human and Institutional Sources of Information

Notes
The early Christian libraries were in monasteries; the Benedictines amassed a fine collection at Monte
Cassino. The Romans had brought book collections to the British Isles, but important early monastic
libraries were founded in York, Wear mouth, Canterbury, and elsewhere in England and Ireland by
Anglo-Saxon monks. Some of the finest manuscript illumination was produced in these libraries.
On the Continent, St. Columban and other missionaries founded monastic libraries in the 6th century.
Most of the ancient Greek and Latin texts that have survived until modern times were preserved in
medieval European monastery libraries.
The Arabs in the 9th to 15th century collected and preserved many libraries, and the Jews and the
Byzantines also developed fine libraries during the medieval period. In the 14th and 15th century
Charles V of France, Lorenzo de’ Medici, and Frederick, duke of Urbino, all formed fine libraries;
part of the Urbino library is now in the Vatican Library. In the 15th century the Vatican Library, the
oldest public library in Europe, was formed. In 1475, Platina, as its first librarian, made a catalogue
that included 2,527 volumes. In 1257, the Sorbonne library at Paris was founded, and in 1525, the
erection of the Laurentian Library in Florence, designed by Michelangelo, was begun. Many of the
great university libraries were opened in the 14th century. In the United States a circulating library,
the Library Company of Philadelphia, was chartered in 1732 on the initiative of Benjamin Franklin.
A public library had, however, been opened in Boston as early as 1653. 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.
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
and strengthened local interest by making the grants contingent upon public support. Among the
innovations of the late 19th century were free public accesses to books and branch libraries or deposit
stations for books in many parts of cities; in the early 20th century? travelling libraries, or
“bookmobiles,” began to take books to readers in rural or outlying areas.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
5. The first public library in Greece was established in:
(a) 1200 B.C (b) 330 B.C
(c) 410 A.D. (d) 1500 A.D.
6. The libraries of which country was benefited greatly from the philanthropy of Andrew
Carnegie:
(a) United States and Great Britain (b) Greek
(c) Paris (d) Moscow.

2.4 Notable Libraries

Among the chief modern public and university libraries are the Bibliotheque nationale and the
Mazarine, Paris; the British Museum, London; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Vatican Library,
Rome; the Ambrosian Library, Milan; the Laurentian Library, Florence; the Russian State Library,
Moscow; the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the New
York Public Library; the libraries of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and other major
American universities; and the Newbery and John Crerar libraries in Chicago.

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