2000 b. C. Predating hammurabi and the oldest law code in human history. Probably as ancient as the Mesopotamian writings, or nearly so, are Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is probable that the earliest "books" were written on wood or leaves as early as the fourth millennium B. C. As the centuries passed, papyrus slowly gave way to parchment the prepared skins of animals as writing material.

3500 b. C. A remarkable work. These fragile materials, unfortunately, have not come down to us. Indeed, the handwritten parchment or vellum codex is "the book" par excellence of the Middle Ages. For sheer weight of information there is no equal to it. The Spectator. In a sense, it is the papyrus scrolls of the Egyptians — preserved by that country's hot, dry climate — that represent the true ancestors of the modern book.

. On these ancient clay shards, sumerian literary catalogues, Babylonian astrology, dense rows of cuneiform script record the seminal writings of mankind: the Gilgamesh epic, Assyrian accounts of the Creation and the Flood, and the Lipit-Ishtar Law-Code c.

Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms, Revised Edition Looking At

Paul getty Museum and beyond. Concise, scholars, readable explanations of the technical terms most frequently encountered in manuscript studies make this portable volume an essential resource for students, and readers who wish a deeper understanding and enjoyment of illuminated manuscripts and medieval book production.

. What is a historiated initial? what are canon tables? what is a drollery? This revised edition of Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms offers definitions of the key elements of illuminated manuscripts, nomenclature, demystifying the techniques, materials, processes, and styles used in the making of these precious books.

Updated to reflect current research and technologies, this beautifully illustrated guide includes images of important manuscript illuminations from the collection of the J.

Dahl's History of the Book: 3rd English Ed.

Major sections discuss publishing during the Middle Ages and how the invention of printing drastically changed and improved the distribution of knowledge. As a general guide, it moves from the earliest writing in the Middle East and Egypt to Greece, Rome, and early Christian contributions to book production and literacy.

. Later chapters take the reader from the age of encyclopedias in the seventeenth century to the great technological advances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For those who wish to pursue specific areas in the history of the book in greater detail, scribes and printers, there are three parts devoted to additional reading with descriptive, critical annotations: general histories and bibliographies, and printing to the modern period.

It provides clear information on how books shaped and reflected major social, political, and literary developments. From cave paintings to computers, this overview of the history of books and communication is written for the layperson and student. Extensive notes and documentation will lead to additional sources.

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Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-956 Iowa and the Midwest Experience

Among librarians this idea is known as the “library faith. But is the american public library as democratic as it appears to be? in main street Public Library, eminent library historian Wayne Wiegand studies four emblematic small-town libraries in the Midwest from the late nineteenth century through the federal Library Service Act of 1956, and shows that these institutions served a much different purpose than is so often perceived.

These libraries, and the librarians who ran them, were often just as susceptible to the political and social pressures of their time as any other public institution. By analyzing the collections of all four libraries and revealing what was being read and why certain acquisitions were passed over, Wiegand challenges both traditional perceptions and professional rhetoric about the role of libraries in our small-town communities.

The united states has more public libraries than it has McDonald’s restaurants. By any measure, the American public library is a heavily used and ubiquitous institution. Rather than acting as neutral institutions that are vital to democracy, the libraries of Sauk Centre, Iowa; Rhinelander, Wisconsin; and Lexington, Minnesota; Osage, Michigan, were actually mediating community literary values and providing a public space for the construction of social harmony.

Popular thinking identifies the public library as a neutral agency that protects democratic ideals by guarding against censorship as it makes information available to people from all walks of life. While the american public library has become essential to its local community, it is for reasons significantly different than those articulated by the “library faith.

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Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library

From colonial times through the recent technological revolution, libraries have continuously adapted to better serve the needs of their communities. Wiegand demonstrates that, edgwina danticat, " the commonplace reading materials users obtained from public libraries have had a transformative effect for many, Toni Morrison, including people such as Ronald Reagan, although cultural authorities including some librarians have often disparaged reading books considered not "serious, Philip Roth, Bill Moyers, Sonia Sotomayor, and Oprah Winfrey.

A bold challenge to conventional thinking about the American public library, Part of Our Lives is an insightful look into one of America's most beloved cultural institutions. Rather than analyzing the words of library founders and managers, Wiegand listens to the voices of everyday patrons who cherished libraries.

Despite dire predictions in the late twentieth century that public libraries would not survive the turn of the millennium, their numbers have only increased. Although library authorities have argued that the public library functions primarily as a civic institution necessary for maintaining democracy, generations of library patrons tell a different story.

In part of our Lives, Wayne A. Two of three americans frequent a public library at least once a year, and nearly that many are registered borrowers. Wiegand delves into the heart of why Americans love their libraries.

Library: An Unquiet History

Matthew battles, takes us on a spirited foray from boston to Baghdad, from the Vatican to the British Library, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, a rare books librarian and a gifted narrator, from socialist reading rooms and rural home libraries to the Information Age. He explores how libraries are built and how they are destroyed, from the decay of the great Alexandrian library to scroll burnings in ancient China to the destruction of Aztec books by the Spanish—and in our own time, the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia.

Encyclopedic in its breadth and novelistic in its telling, this volume will occupy a treasured place on the bookshelf next to Baker's Double Fold, Manguel's A History of Reading, Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, and Winchester's The Professor and the Madman. Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge.

Splendidly articulate, informative and provoking. A book to be savored and gone back to. Baltimore sunon the survival and destruction of knowledge, from Alexandria to the Internet.

Transforming Our Image, Building Our Brand: The Education Advantage

This book describes a groundbreaking concept that enables public libraries—and librarians—to become indispensable by following a "Three Pillars" educational approach, intuitive, and by replacing traditional terms with powerful, value-enhanced terminology that everyone understands.

On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History ALA Notable Books for Adults

It preserves our history and gives record to our very finest literary, cultural, and scientific accomplishments. Since its invention in China nearly two millennia ago, the technology of paper has spread throughout the inhabited world. With deep knowledge and care, Basbanes traces paper’s trail from the earliest handmade sheets to the modern-day mills.

Without paper, modern hygienic practice would be unimaginable; as currency, people will do almost anything to possess it; and, as a tool of expression, it is inextricable from human culture. A best book of the year:mother jones • bloomberg news • national Post • Kirkus In these pages, Nicholas Basbanes—the consummate bibliophile’s bibliophile—shows how paper has been civilization’s constant companion.

Lavishly researched, compellingly written, this masterful guide illuminates paper’s endless possibilities. . Paper, yoked to politics, has played a crucial role in the unfolding of landmark events, from the American Revolution to Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers to the aftermath of 9/11.

The Book: A Global History

The three new articles, cover censorship, copyright and intellectual property, specially commissioned for this spin-off, and book history in the Caribbean and Bermuda. All essays are illustrated throughout with reproductions, diagrams, and examples of various typographical features. Beautifully produced and hugely informative, this is a must-have for anyone with an interest in book history and the written word.

The 54 chapters introduce readers to the fascinating world of book history. A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume. Including 21 thematic studies on topics such as writing systems, as well as 33 regional and national histories of 'the book', and the economics of print, offering atruly global survey of the book around the world, the ancient and the medieval book, the Oxford History of the Book is the most comprehensive work of its kind.

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