bookandslugclub:

What was the first library?

_{( Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the Library of Alexandria. That’s just a tragedy on its own. )}

_{As with the first book ever written, there’s no real answer! The first libraries
consisted of archives of clay tablets in cuneiform script, such as those
discovered in the temple rooms in Sumer, some of which dated back to 2600 BC.} 

_{The Library of Ashurbanipal (also spelled Assurbanipal) is a collection of clay tablets recovered by Austen Henry Layard in the mid-19th century at the Mesopotamian city of Nineveh. The library included 25,000 clay tablet fragments adding up to about 1200 texts written in cuneiform. The texts cover information on all kinds of things: religion, bureaucracy, science, mathematics, poetry, medicine.}

_{In the 600s BC, Ashurbanipal established this great library and perhaps it’s regarded as one of the first because it had many of the same characteristics of a modern library. For example texts were organized by subject matter, government documents were also held in the library, and there were citations explaining what sets of tablets and rooms contained. Eventually the library was buried during an invasion, and although Ashurbanipal’s library was not the first library, it was one of the largest of its time, and one of the first libraries to implement cataloging as we use in the present day.}

_{Sources: ( x ) ( x ) ( x )}