National Library Week: A Celebration of Libraries and Librarians

The position of librarian dates from ancient times.The first known library appeared during the reign of King Ashurbanipal. It was housed in his palace at Ninevah (modern day Iraq). At that point, information was recorded on clay tablets. The persons responsible for the collection, while not individually named, were known as "keepers of the books."

The greatest library of the ancient world was The Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt. Callimachus, one of its librarians, created the first subject catalog of library holdings.

During the Middle Ages, the scriptoriums of monasteries kept busy producing beautiful illuminated manuscripts. Monks functioned as artisans and librarians.

In the 17th Century Sir Thomas Bodley established Oxford’s Bodelian Library the first fuctional library of modern times.

It would take another 200 years of development before the practise of librarianship would resemble the current system. Melvil Dewey (yes, that Dewey as in Decimal System) created his system. He was also instrumental in founding the American Library Association and opening the first library school, The School of Library Economy at Columbia University.

The 20th Century would see libraries and library science evolve into their current incarnation. As technology continues to evolve so will librarians.

These famous people all worked as librarians: 

• Benjamin Franklin founded the first lending library in the United States.
• Thomas Jefferson's library holdings started the Library of Congress.
• Beverly Cleary, beloved children’s book author.
• Lewis Caroll, author of Alice in Wonderland.
• Marcel Proust, French author and philosopher. Think “Madeleines” (the cookie.)
• Anne Tyler-author.
• Marcel Duchamps, avant garde artist.
• Nancy Pearl- Librarian extraordinaire and model for the librarian action figure.

And of course, all the librarians at the .