Do we still need libraries in the internet age?
“When in doubt, go to the library.” – J.K. Rowling This talk will be viewed through three angles: (1.) Access – cost, discrimination through socio-economic status, race and gender; (2.) Technology – transformation and innovation and (3.) Threats – mainly wars and occupation. 2,300 years ago, the Egyptians embarked upon one of the most ambitious […]
“When in doubt, go to the library.”
– J.K. Rowling
This talk will be viewed through three angles: (1.) Access – cost, discrimination through socio-economic status, race and gender; (2.) Technology – transformation and innovation and (3.) Threats – mainly wars and occupation.
2,300 years ago, the Egyptians embarked upon one of the most ambitious projects in human history. They wanted to collect all the world’s knowledge under one roof.
The project was conceived by Alexander the Great but he died before the project began.
Ptolemy I, Alexander’s successor, completed the project and invited scholars to live in Alexandria and work in the library at his expense.
As a result, the scrolls in the library grew. Additionally, Alexandria was the hub of ships travelling through the Mediterranean. Soon Ptolemy III enacted a policy that required ships to turn over their scrolls for copying by the library scribes.
They got the ships carrying books, they copied the books, kept the originals and gave the copies to the owners.
Book hunters were also hired to search the Mediterranean for books.
Soon the library held hundreds of thousands of materials – growing to 500,000 scrolls. But that came with its own challenge. It was difficult to find a piece of specific information.
Therefore, Callimachus of Cyrene decided to face the challenge of organising the library. He created a 120 volume catalogue of the library’s contents – the first-ever.
Using these records others were able to discover that in 235 BCE and before Columbus ever set sail to the Americas, Erathosthenes discovered that the Earth was round and made almost accurate calculations of its circumference and diameter. Heron of Alexandria also fashioned the world’s first steam engine, before it was rediscovered during the industrial revolution – after a thousand years.
The library existed for 300 years after it was built in 283 BCE. Among its visitors was Archemedes.
Unfortunately, in 48 BCE, during the reign of another Ptolemy, Ptolemy XIII, it was reported that the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, destroyed the library when he laid siege to Alexandria and set the harbour on fire. It was said that the fire spread to the city.
And that is where we have the first threat to libraries.
In this paper, I will discuss two threats libraries have faced for thousands of years: wars and access.
And one tool that has helped libraries for hundreds of years: technology and how it improved access and innovation.
In doing that, I will highlight the different models of library usage and their evolution to the modern age. We will also answer the question: do we still need libraries in the age of the internet where information is just two seconds conversation with Google away?
And if libraries are still important, how do we design them so that students want to come?
The paper is structured into three sections:
The past
The present and
The future
In each section, I will discuss the triple constraints/opportunities of access, threats and technology.
At the end of the talk, I will ask you one question: what are the three ways in which the library has changed?
- Past
When civilisation started, libraries were at the heart of it. As you shall see presently, libraries were used to signal military rivals that you care about empire and empirical evidence – in other words, that you were civilised.
It is difficult to say which was the first library. But according to a Yale Commentary Project, Mesopotamia in modern day Iraq, which is said to be the cradle of civilisation, had three types of libraries: temple, palace and private.
One of the first libraries was built in the 7th Century BCE, the Library of Ashurbinapal erected by the Assyrian King of the same name in the modern day Iraq. The library housed the king’s personal collections.
However, the first library that was open to all, was that of Alexandria, which started with the ambition of housing all the knowledge of the world.
The library is the story of three Ptolemys.
Built by Ptolemy I, improved upon by Ptolemy III and destroyed by Julius Caesar during the reign of Ptolemy XIII.
Then the Byzantine Empire built the Emperial Library of Constantinople in the 4th Century and later the House of Wisdom built by Abbasid caliphs in 9th Century CE.
The transition from the ancient era to the Middle Centuries showed that the libraries evolved into housing religious materials like the library in Muritania that still houses a Qur’an manuscript for centuries. But some libraries were not used for only missionary activities.
The oldest library still in existence is the Wahid University Library in Morocco which was founded in 859 CE. It was of a scholarly nature with collection in science and philosophy.
Then we have the Vatican Library, which opened in 1475 CE and which adopted a middle-ground approach collecting not only religious materials but also state records and scientific collections.
- Threats:
- Access
In the past, access was restricted to royalty and big scholars. Although the Library of Alexandria opened its doors to all, there were not many of its kind. Also, because libraries were also used for knowledge dissemination (for instance, the Library of Alexandria had lecture halls), this limited access probably also limited the number of students and scholars.
- War
It is easy to agree with me on access, but many will question what has war got to do with libraries?
I will give you a few examples of how wars destroyed libraries and deprived us of a good deal of knowledge.
The House of Wisdom built by Muslim Abassid Caliphs was such a large and influential library that it attracted scholars from all over the region – including one of the fathers of algebra Abu Musa Khawrizmi from whose name we got the word algorithm. Other scholars were al-Kindi. The collections included literature from Persia, Greece, India, etc. Subjects included mathematics, science, astronomy and medicine. It was the epicentre of Islamic intellectualism and a launchpad for modern science. Unfortunately, Mongols sacked it during their invasion of Mesopotamia in 1258. They tipped the books and manuscripts into River Tigris until the river turned black on account of the quantum of materials destroyed.
I’ve already mentioned how the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar contributed to the end of the Library of Alexandria. Even though records say people used a section of the library for many years more after the siege, the conflict proved catalytic in the end.
Similarly, there were a significant number of magnificent libraries destroyed by war and occupation.
- Technology
It wasn’t until 50 – 121 CE, the years between which Cai Lun lived, that paper was invented. Cai Lun, a Chinese tinkerer, is credited with the invention of paper and the papermaking process. Therefore, even though the Library of Alexandria didn’t enjoy this innovation, the later libraries like the House of Wisdom in Iraq enjoyed the boon in book production.
And when in the Middle Centuries, Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) invented the printed process, there was another boost to book production and therefore more materials for the libraries.
This is a one way technology-aided library acquisitions.
Indeed, these two inventions (paper making process and the mechanical printing press) did not only help libraries, but also other aspects of our daily lives, such much so that Michael Hart in his The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, listed both Cai Lun (number 7) and Gutenberg (number 8) behind Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Isaac Newton, Jesus Christ (AS), Buddha, Confucius and Paul of Tarsus.
To be continued.
For the complete paper with references, email me at [email protected]
This is the paper I presented as the guest speaker at the Nigeria School Library Association’s 34th Annual Conference in Minna on 29 October 2019.