The Story of Libraries

The title "The Story of Libraries" suggests from the very beginning that this is not a strictly historical treatise but rather more than that. Why is it "the story" and not "the history"? Lerner does not limit his work to lists of facts and description of collections and buildings from the past. If the title of that book had been The History of Libraries, it would have given us a chronologically organised body of facts and events. Happily it is more than that. The Story of Libraries deals not only with facts and figures, but also with ideas, philosophies, and with the spirit of libraries and librarianship over the centuries. The first libraries were established and maintained by early civilisations at a great expense and effort. As the objects of envy and desire they were affected adversely by wars, political and religious conflicts, and conquests. In the past very few people had an access to the library and very few were educated enough to take advantage of one. The difference between those who were users of the libraries and those who maintained them, who were anonymous and silent workers copying thousands of words, not even understanding them, such as the scribes, seems to be not comprehensible for an average modern library user. The story of libraries is not only the story of clay tablets, scrolls of papyrus, or parchment or books. It is also the story of technologies which were used to create records. It is a story of people who developed, influenced and controlled the developments. A reader gets the full and fascinating picture of all these aspects in the first, historical part of this book. Further chapters where author concentrates on ideas and the history of public libraries or the history of library services for children give us a deeper understanding of the library as an influential institution in society. The scope of this book is broader than one could expect. Apart the history of libraries the great part of the book is devoted to the sociological aspect of the librarianship and, what is most important, it attempts to give an image of the future of libraries. Here the author posits many crucial questions. Is it true that the entire future literature will be paperless? Would all the users be equal in accessing the wealth of the library resources on even grounds? Are the new technologies going to change the shape of the libraries to the point of them becoming the wall-less? How about the Internet? Digital technology? Data preservation? What Lerner underlines is that the modern times bring new challenges to librarianship.This book has some significant, even glaring omissions. Lerner writes in the preface:"The Story of Libraries" is a brief historical narrative, not an exhaustive statistical survey. No doubts there are documented exceptions to every generalisation it contains. [. . .] My aim in The Story of Libraries is to trace the evolution of libraries and to explore the role they played in the