I noticed a lack of any timeline of library history in the recent introduction The Library: A Fragile History (2022), and I didn’t see one in Wikipedia either, so here is a suggested starting point. Although I sang the praises of ten dates for a chronology, this one has over 50 items. Nonetheless, I hope it is helpful. I realise from the chronology that most of the significant events during the last 25 years have been digital. Can anyone think of a major event in library history from the last ten years?
| BCE | |
| C2500-609 | Assyrian Empire had libraries of cuneiform documents, on clay tablets |
| 338 | Athens establishes an official archive of texts |
| 285-246 BCE | Library of Alexandria (a scholarly archive) founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphius |
| CE | |
| 802 | Synod of Aachen: Parish churches made responsible for keeping a rudimentary parish library |
| C9 | Earliest reference to a monastic library, at St Gallen, with books stored in chests |
| C13 | First chained libraries, at the Sorbonne, Paris |
| Late C13ff | Humanists in Italy collecting books. Many classical books acquired from monastery libraries. |
| 1444 | Completion of San Marco Library, Florence, for Cosimo de’ Medici, open to “literate male citizens of the city of Florence with scholarly interests” |
| 1447 | Duke Humfrey of Lancaster bequeaths 281 books to form the Oxford University Library |
| C1450 | Gutenberg invents moveable-type printing |
| C16 | Fernando Colon assembles a library in Seville of over 15,000 books and ephemera, with an alphabetical catalogue, and books on open shelves (rather than in chests) |
| 1506 | Sponheim Library grows to 2,000 books and manuscripts |
| C16 | When German cities adopt Lutheranism, they create school libraries |
| 1550s | English university libraries closed by order of the Crown. Oxford University books removed and mostly destroyed |
| 1595 | first printed library catalogue at Leiden, Netherlands |
| 1602 | The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, opens |
| 1610 | Thomas Bodley persuades The Stationers’ Company to deposit a copy of every new printed work in England to the Bodleian Library: the foundation of legal deposit |
| 1638 | John Harvard bequeaths 400 books to create the new Harvard University Library (today the world’s largest private library) |
| 1642 | Cardinal Mazarin opens the first reference library open to all (until 1652) |
| 1698 | Thomas Bray founds the SPCK, with a library for clergymen in every rural area, of 62-72 books |
| 1704-08 | Rev Kirkwood initiates a plan for a public lending library in every parish of Scotland (never completed) |
| C18 | The Baroque Hall Library widely built in Northern Europe, a library building designed to impress by the space rather than by the books |
| 1701 | Hamburg Municipal Library allows citizens to borrow books |
| 1720s | Lesengesellschaften, reading societies, in German-speaking lands (600 by 1800) |
| 1725 | The first circulating library established in Edinburgh. Circulating libraries tended to provide books for leisure rather than for improvement |
| 1731 | The first subscription lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin and associates. |
| 1753 | Hans Sloane sells his collection to form the first national library, British Library (opened 1759) |
| 1762 | William Read opens the first circulating library in North America. |
| 1781 | The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, the first of the major UK civic learned societies |
| 1820 | New York Apprentices’ Library and Mercantile Library Association founded |
| 1821 | The first Mechanics’ Institute in the UK, in Edinburgh, including a library; in 1823 equivalents opened in Manchester, Glasgow and London, growing to 9,000 institutes by 1900 |
| 1830 | Bombay subscription library open (on payment) to Indian population |
| 1833 | Peterborough, New Hampshire, becomes the first public library funded by local taxation with free access to all |
| 1842 | Mudie’s Library, for many years the UK’s largest circulating library |
| 1850 | The UK Public Libraries Act empowers UK local authorities to raise funds to create public libraries, although only few cities made use of the provision |
| 1854 | The Boston Public Library opens (planned from 1848) |
| 1857 | The first mobile library or bookmobile, in Cumbria, UK. In the USA, many bookmobiles in rural areas were supported by Women’s Clubs |
| 1859 | The Cooper Union Reading Room in New York provides free access to newspapers and periodicals |
| 1876 | Melvin Dewey publishes the first Dewey Decimal Classification, the most widespread library cataloguing system |
| 1883-1929 | Andrew Carnegie funds the building of over 2,500 public libraries, in the USA and UK, including many in smaller towns |
| Late C19 | Workers’ Libraries in Germany become widespread, run by trade unions and the Social Democratic Party |
| 1893 | The Women’s Building Library at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, comprises over 8,000 books |
| 1897 | US Library of Congress moves to a purpose-built building |
| 1897 | Library of Congress Classification released, using 21 basic classes based on letters of the alphabet |
| 1911 | Main Building of the New York Public Library opened |
| Early C20 | Rise of the major US research libraries: Morgan (New York) 1924, Huntingdon (California) 1919, Folger (Washington DC) 1932, all from private collections |
| 1939 | The ALA issues a Bill of Rights, affirming the library’s right to choose which books should enter the collection |
| 1949 | UNESCO manifesto on public libraries |
| 1966 | MARC, a standard for sharing bibliographic data, released |
| 1995 | Internet Public Library, largely run by volunteers (closed 2015) |
| 1996 | Internet Archive founded, providing free Access to web pages, books, films, and other material, collected by web crawling |
| 2001 | The Wayback Machine, an archive of all web pages, launched by the Internet Archive |
| 2004 | Google announces plan to digitize all the world’s books, later abandoned in face of opposition from authors, publishers and libraries |
| 2008 | Hathi Trust, a digital library of books and journals, founded by 60 research libraries |
| 2011 | Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) begun by the Internet Archive |
| 2013 | Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) founded – a collection of public domain content |
Kathleen McCook
Thank you for this timeline.
Maybe–1893 -Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition.
Wadsworth, Sarah, and Wayne A. Wiegand. 2012. Right Here I See My Own Books : The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Table 2.1
Approximate number of items contributed to the
Woman’s Building Library by participating countries
Country Number of items
United States ……………………………………………4,866
France …………………………………………………………985
Spain ………………………………………………………….533
Great Britain ……………………………………………….507
Germany ……………………………………………………..326
Bohemia ……………………………………………………..283
Italy ……………………………………………………………227
Norway ……………………………………………………….159
Sweden ……………………………………………………….149
Belgium ………………………………………………………116
Holland ……………………………………………………….62
Austria ………………………………………………………….23
Peru ………………………………………………………………5
Portugal …………………………………………………………3
Turkey …………………………………………………………..3
Canada ………………………………………………………….2
China …………………………………………………………….2
Greece …………………………………………………………..2
Arabia …………………………………………………………….1
Brazil ……………………………………………………………..1
Cuba ………………………………………………………………1
Finland …………………………………………………………..1
Japan ………………………………………………………………1
Poland…………………………………………………………….1
Total ………………………………………………….8,259
Source: Edith Clarke, List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign
Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, World’s
Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (Chicago, 1894).
Michael Upshall
Thanks Kathleen, fascinating!