LIBRARY IN HISTORY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 117, 16 April 1940, Page 2

LIBRARY IN HISTORY.

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT. The antiquity of the library system was illustrated in an address delivered to the Manawatu branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute by Mr H. Greenwood, the city librarian. Stating that the records of the earliest institution of the kind had been unearthed at Nippur, on the ancient coarse of the Euphrates, Mr Greenwood said that, in addition to some 30.000 documents of a business character, there were found several thousands of literary texts inscribed on ctav tablets, dating from about 2200 1900 8.C., the most notable being those containing the Sumerian legend of the Flood. From such records as these were compiled the lists of kings which furnished until recently our only skeleton of early Mesopotamian history. In ancient Egypt, continued the speaker, archaeology had shown the existence of many jibraries. That of Itameses II bore over its entrance the inscription, “The Hospital of the Soul.” In Greece there was no early evidence of the collecting of books, and it was only with the libraries of Alexandria and l’ermagon that the bibliographical history of the Greek world could be said to begin. In Babylonia and Assyria a book was a clay tablet a few inches square or a clay cylinder or prism; in Egypt it took the form of a roll of papyrus inscribed in ink, which style was adopted b.v Greece and llonie; in Palestine skins were used, but tlie shape was the same. The Alexandrian Library stood high among the great ones of history, it having been estimated that it contained from 100,000 to 700,000 volumes. The first experiments in bibliography appeared to have been made there in the form of catalogues. The institution of libraries became a recognised practice in the Roman Empire, said Mr Greenwood. In the first century of Imperial Romo private libraries were as much a necessity for an educated man as in Eighteenth Century England, and public libraries were at the service of all who could read. In the early part of the Fourth Century, with the supersession of papyrus by vellum, a revolution took place in book production. For. the first time it was possible to include all the books of the Bible in a single book, and it was probable that the desire to possess all the sacred books of Christianity was a powerful motive in bringing about the change. With this new form of book the libraries took on new features. In the Thirteenth Century a great' impulse to the production of books was given, when the universities of Paris and Oxford were founded, and when the adoption of a smaller script made it possible to produce books in a smaller format at less cost. This led to the growth of libraries in which students could r6ad and sit. Passing on to the development of libraries in New Zealand, and Palmerston North in particular, Mr Greenwood pointed out that in the Municipal Library history, the, arts, literature, sociology, science, and religion were represented, while numerous reference books in connection with contemporary events were available. An endeavour.was being made to introduce the children to literature of the best type, for unless it could do so a library failed in its primary purpose. At the conclusion of his address, the meeting, which included primary and post-primary teachers, as well as others interested, accorded Air Greenwood a vote of thanks.