How Intellectual Ability Influenced the Library System Development


 


Modern libraries are resource facilities where the public can obtain information and


 knowledge by way of print, audio and visual materials in various formats including


maps, documents, microform, DVDs and audiobooks, as well as material from


electronic sources and the Internet. They provide the assistance of librarians in


navigating and making maximum use of its resources and in guiding people doing


research projects. They also provide a silent venue conducive for study.[1]


 


Written information and knowledge on a wide variety of subjects were first started to be


collected in some kind of repository during ancient times to satisfy man’s thirst for the


 same. The discovered clay tablets and papyrus scrolls from the Near East that were


 the repository mediums used then eventually became known as the library. The


increased interest in literacy and intellectual life by the ancient Greeks initiated the


building of public and private collections of books in the forms then used. The process


consisted of the authors who wrote on various subjects, the copy shops or scriptoria


who produced the books and the book dealers who marketed them.[2]


 


A book’s quality depended on its being trustworthy, so the copying of books demanded


accuracy in execution. Large private collections of books grew, such as that of


Aristotle’s, and the arrangement of libraries began. The developed codices improved


book storage because their leaves were protected by covers and they could be stored


flat on shelves.[3]


 


The great public library of Alexandria that was founded about 300 BC, aimed to hold


copies of all the books in the world because Egyptian kings were interested in the


people they ruled over. They wanted Greek translations of Latin, Buddhist, Persian,


Hebrew and Egyptian works and opened the library to people with scholarly and


literary backgrounds. Modern literary scholarship originated in the Alexandria


library, which also served as the model for later libraries.[4]


 


The Roman empire also had rich library resources in Greek and Latin derived from


 private collections and from the spoils of war. In their system, books placed along


the walls can be consulted by readers in the middle of the room.[5]


 


Monastic communities, with its mostly theological collections of books, demanded


literacy among its members and sustained the interest in library use. As Christianity


spread, the Benedictines created libraries and initiated inter-library loans.


Aristocrats during the Renaissance became interested in different fields of learning


and sought inspiration from the artistic and literary classics from Greece and Rome.


The invention of printing allowed printed books to supplant handwritten manuscripts.


The popularity and use of libraries rose throughout the 1600s and 1700s in such


countries as Britain, France, Italy, Russia and America due to the development of


universities and support of the state.[6]


 


As we have seen, man’s unending quest for knowledge and understanding of the


world about him, his past as well as what the future holds for him has led him not only to


first-hand study and original thinking, but also to research on what has already been


studied and thought of before and to build on them. The intelligent and inquisitive of the


species has since ancient times recognized the value of a repository of information and


 knowledge in improving the general human condition and in avoiding the factors that


 will cause its decline. The evolution of the library system is parallel to intellectual man’s


 continuing search for knowledge and understanding.



 


[1] “Library”, Wikipedia, 29 April 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library>


[accessed 30 April 2011]


[2] Barbara Krasner-Khait, “Survivor: The History of the Library”, History Magazine, October-November


2001, <http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html> [accessed 30 April 2011]


[3] ibid


[4] ibid


[5] ibid


[6] ibid



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