The Library: An Illustrated History, by Stuart A.P. Murray

The Library: An Illustrated History. By Stuart A.P. Murray. Chicago: American
Library Association, 2009. 310 pp. Hardcover ISBN9780838909911.

In this attractive volume, Stuart Murray provides an overview of the history of libraries during the five thousand years that they have existed. With a foreword by Nicholas Basbanes, and an introduction by Donald G. Davis, The Library: An Illustrated History is an excellent entry into the world of libraries, ancient and modern.

Organized into twelve chapters, the book describes the development of libraries from ancient times to the present. The first seven chapters cover ancient libraries, Asian and Islamic libraries, and the development of libraries throughout medieval and renaissance Europe. The chapter “People of the Book” is particularly valuable as a description of libraries in African and Middle Eastern countries. The role of governments and religions in the history and development of libraries is depicted in many of the chapters.

The final five chapters are devoted primarily to the development of libraries and librarianship as a discipline in the United States. Chapters cover such topics as the library in colonial North America, the library in the young United States, and the development of the profession of librarianship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Much detail is provided about the founding of the Library of Congress and its subsequent relocations and early tragedies, such as the fires that destroyed many of the books in the early collections. Some attention is paid to the theory of cataloging and classification in “Organizing Knowledge,” and the development of community-based public libraries is described in great detail in “The Library Movement.”

The final section of the book is a description of many of the most renowned libraries in the world, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, and the Newberry Library. The highly accessible volume is richly illustrated throughout with drawings, photographs, and facsimiles, and includes a bibliography for further reading and an index; it would be a valuable addition to academic, public, or personal libraries.