English As We Know It: The History Of The Library
Imagine this. You're in a room. It’s silent. Books are piled up in stacks, reaching up to the ceiling. The smell of ink and old parchment fills your nose. Right then, right there, you can pick any book. Each one would give you a different adventure. Which one do you choose?
As a young child, one of my favourite activities was going to the library. I would wander through the racks, gathering up stacks and struggling with the hard words. As I grew up I moved from books like Dick and Jane to Harry Potter. Libraries, I should say, helped me find my passion for reading and writing.
The word library comes from the Latin word liber, meaning “book’, whereas a Latinized Greek word, bibliotheca, is the origin of the word for library in German, Russian, and the Romance languages. It means a room or study where those books are kept.
Libraries were originally used to store business, legal, historical and religious records of civilization. Now, at libraries everywhere, you can use computers to research and you can also research on the computer from home.
The earliest library dates back to 5,000 years ago in the Southwest Asian regions of the world. One of the oldest libraries we know of is the ancient library at Ebla (circa 2500 BCE) in present-day Syria. However, It wasn't until the Middle Ages that people began to rely on them as a need.
In the Renaissance Era, more people had the chance to become educated and relied on libraries as a place to study and gain knowledge. Most of the books found during this time in libraries held religious text.
Libraries helped enrich the culture of those who were educated by providing this valuable resource which was otherwise unavailable. The knowledge, however, was only really available to those with money or power. Those included the royals and nobility, though those with lower means could not afford it.
In the 14th century, only five per cent of poor and middle-class people could read and write. It wasn’t until 1602 when Thomas Bodley, an English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England as an early public library. As a result, more people were able to be educated.
We are fortunate that, no matter where we are or what our social class may be, libraries are now available to us whether it be online or a building we actually visit. As of 2019, there are libraries that offer computer classes. Libraries are reinventing themselves to be more appealing to the modern reader. Some even offer coding workshops and 3D printers!
In conclusion, libraries can be a getaway for those who visit them to step away from all the stresses of life and can allow them to dive into the world of their favourite books. Libraries are a great and wonderful thing. There is a great beauty in the silence that fills these buildings.
Someday, I hope to visit the halls of some of the most famous libraries. The number one library I would like to visit is the Trinity College Library in Dublin. The library has rows of books that go from ceiling to floor. A fun fact about the library is that The Jedi archives of the Jedi Temple in the movie Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones bear a startling resemblance to the Long Room of the Trinity College Library.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to curl up with a hot cup of tea, and a good book.
Links
Carissa Fortin
She is a massive Harry Potter nerd. She loves mac and cheese. She would love to travel the world some day as a career. Her favourite place to be is in the library.