Libraries provide some of the most efficient knowledge all in one book. Some books are just for fun, while others have non-fiction, and hold real-life stories for the endless possibilities in a library. And for authors, there are no such things as restrictions. But in a library there are. Like, be quiet. You don’t want to disturb others while they’re reading. Or no running, you don’t want to fall and hit a bookshelf. But we are also not talking about one of the most important things about libraries. The history.
Libraries go back farther than you might’ve thought, to be honest, farther than I thought. Books were very expensive back then because the materials to make and publish these books were very expensive or hard to get. So one of the first libraries was The Library of Ashurbanipal which was founded in the 7th century B.C. and located in Nineveh in modern-day Iraq. Its purpose was for the ¨Royal contemplation¨. But this library did not have books. Instead, it had over 30,000 cuneiform scripts, which is a type of old writing.
Next, we have the British Library which was founded in 1973 and still lives on today. It holds around 14 million books! And getting the reader’s pass will let somebody borrow a book for free. With the pass, you are open to between 170 and 200 million items to look at. The building cost was 445 million and took between 1982 and 1998 for the construction to be completed. This library gives the largest access to knowledge and research in the world.
And now that brings us to the Danish Royal Library or the Royal Danish Library. This magnificent library is one of the largest of the Nordic countries. It’s even the National Library of Denmark, and in 2017 it merged with the state and the University Library in Aarhus, which is now the national library. It opened in 1793 but was founded in 1648 by King Frederick III. The current estimated amount of books is 32 million, including book copies.
For our final library, I’m going to include the Library of Parliament. Interestingly enough the library survived a fire in 1916 that was active in the nearby Centre Block. This main branch of the library is located on the rear of the nearby Centre Block, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. And this library happens to be the main place for research and information resources in Canada. It holds about 80,000 books and newspapers, also. parliamentary papers.
But in all, there are 320,000 public libraries in the world! So many books and still so many more to read and write. A world full of comprehension to discover. Isn’t it just amazing how we can grab a book and just imagine a world full of creativity? Just to escape ourselves from reality, just to think. I want other people to feel the same, in sync with the book. So go grab a book.
Go to your local library. There’s no limit to what you can achieve. Just like there’s no limit to a book.
