Extract from ABC News
In public libraries across the country, from grand inner-city buildings to those in small regional towns, Australians are given free access to more than 37.5 million items.
That's just physical items like books or magazines — there are millions more digital items on offer, as well as a raft of other materials and services.
But these institutions, which form a vital part of many communities, may have easily never existed.
While societies have collected texts for millennia, the idea of a truly public library is actually something relatively new.
"[When it comes to] free access to books for any citizen who wants to go and borrow … [It's only] in the mid-19th century that anything like this comes along," Andrew Pettegree, a historian from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, tells ABC RN's Saturday Extra.
Professor Pettegree has written a new book with fellow historian Arthur der Weduwen titled The Library: A Fragile History, which explores the story of these institutions.
So, how exactly did your local public library come into being?
Ancient beginnings
In his book, Professor Pettegree traces the history of libraries back to ancient Mesopotamia in the Middle East.
There, royalty from the Assyrian Empire amassed and stored large collections of clay tablets, with one such library in the 7th century BCE holding more than 30,000 items.
But there were no accompanying clay library cards — these collections were solely for the use of royalty and their scholars.
Clay tablets were later replaced by the far lighter mediums of parchment and papyrus, meaning libraries could dramatically grow in size.
In the 3rd century BCE, the colossal Library of Alexandria in Egypt opened, where as many as 500,000 scrolls were made available to elite scholars of the time.
The ancient Romans also built libraries, which Professor Pettegree says were a place where "great men could show off their wealth … rather than a facility for the citizens."
It was a trend that would continue for thousands of years.
Libraries around the world
Professor Pettegree also lays out how, across Persia, India and China, the "collecting of fine manuscripts, embellished with elegant decorations, lavish colours and superb calligraphy, was a favoured pastime of princes and emperors."
And starting in the 7th century CE, Muslim caliphs like those in Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba and Cairo assembled libraries "famed throughout the Islamic world for their size."
In Central America, the Mayan and Aztec civilisations also had large collections of books and archives, but these were systematically destroyed by the Spanish colonists.
Meanwhile in Europe, as Christianity spread, monasteries became home to significant libraries and also "scriptoriums," or writing rooms where texts could be replicated by hand.
Then in the 14th and 15th centuries, developments around paper and printing changed everything.
"[Paper and printing] are what enable books to be multiplied to the extent that the joy of book ownership can finally be spread out of institutions … into the hands of private collectors," Professor Pettegree says.
But he adds that the only consistent thing in the history of libraries is inconsistency.
"Through all the stages of the development of civilisations, libraries have a pattern of success and growth, followed by backward steps — as they're either pummelled by historical events or simply go out of fashion."
A 'seismic shift'
In the 1700s, there was a "seismic shift" around libraries, says Professor Pettegree, which lays the foundations of the public libraries we know today.
This era saw the birth of "subscription libraries" or private libraries that were largely restricted to fee-paying members. These member-only libraries were popular in the Americas and also around Europe.
Professor Pettegree says in subscription libraries, friends would gather and read books not only "for self instruction and self improvement, but also novels for entertainment."
"It signalled the beginning of a development where libraries are not simply being tools of scholarship," he says.
"People were beginning to think — and this is the fundamental change that will eventually lead to the public library — of books as a form of recreation, relaxation and entertainment."
The steel baron turned philanthropist
Public library movements developed in the 1800s and some philanthropists and businessmen threw their support behind the idea.
"Many of the earliest public libraries were gifted by people who'd made a fortune in some form of industry," Professor Pettegree says.
But he says one man stands out: The Scottish-born American steel baron Andrew Carnegie, who "brought little romance to the business of libraries, but much of the clear-minded rationality with which he had made his business fortune."
"Instead of a 'great man's library' with Roman columns and a great internal staircase, he would give [communities] a simple building for a single librarian," Professor Pettegree says.
"He said, 'I will give your local community $10,000 to build yourself a library. But in return, you have to commit the annual sum of $1,000 to maintain it and provide books and staff'."
The industrialist went on to give 2,500 libraries to communities in the US, Canada and the UK.
This paved the way for what Professor Pettegree calls "the great age of the public library," which he dates from 1880 to 1960.
Over these years, the idea of public libraries that were open to all spread across the world, and millions of people were given access to millions of texts.
Public libraries in Australia
The Melbourne Public Library (today known as the State Library Victoria) was established in 1854, making it the first public library in Australia and one of the first free public libraries in the world.
Material from the library says its founders "believed that access to knowledge was critical for the development of a civil and prosperous community, and [they] created the library as 'the people's university.'"
In his book, Professor Pettegree looks at how in the 1970s, Australia was one of the first countries "to face up to the issue … of whether books would catch up with the world before progress caught up with books."
The then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam tasked respected librarian Allan Horton to come up with some solutions. His report, Libraries are great mate!' But they could be greater, recommended that libraries should become community hubs.
Australian libraries continued to grow and thrive. According to the latest statistical report from the National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) which covered 2019-2020, there are more than 1,600 public library outlets in Australia (including branches, mobile libraries and other types).
In one year, there were more than 107.9 million loans of physical items and more than 34 million loans, downloads and retrievals from electronic collections.
And Australians seem to love their libraries — with more than 9.3 million registered library members, representing more than 36 per cent of the total Australian population.
Wrestling with modernity
Professor Pettegree says the death of the public library has been predicted almost as much as the death of the book, but it has not happened.
But could the digital age finally spell the end of libraries?
"I am less worried about the future than many futurologists. Every development like radio, then cinema, then television was accompanied by a great deal of doomsaying [around the role of books and libraries] … But in fact, [these new inventions] found a sort of synergy with books," he says.
"Libraries will have to continue to reinvent themselves and make themselves relevant to the communities they serve. But actually, that's been the history of the library throughout the story we're telling."
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