La Rue Hansen, age 13, Ephraim, Utah, for his question:

When was the first library established?

History began when our remotest ancestors invented writing and used it to set down the records of human events. Writing was invented by several widely Separated cultures of ancient people. Each group used whatever writing materials were handy and developed its own system of pictures or letters to Set down its own language. This kindergarten period of homer history lasted for thousands of years.

The people of ancient Mesopotamia used pointed sticks to do their cuniform writing on damp clay. The ancient Egyptians made long scrolls of papyrus from the leaves of reedy plants and wrote their records with brushes and black ink. The scholars of old Constantinople used ink to write on dried animal skins, and the Early Chinese invented paper for their writings.

For perhaps thousands of years writing and reading was a rare art. But in time more and more people learned to read and writ, and collections of written material began to grow. Several different cultures had invented writing, and several different cultures hit upon the idea of keeping their precious collections of written material in a library.

Perhaps Egypt was the first to start a library, or perhaps the first library was founded in ancient Mesopotamia. We know part of the story of libraries frown later records and part from archeological excavations  but we do not know enough to say who started the first library or where.

The papyrus scrolls of Egypt were perishable and many have crumbled to fragments. But later records tell us that a great library was founded 4500 years ago at Gizeh, where the sturdy pyramids still stand. The Pharoah Ramases II founded a library at Thebes 4300 years ago. Most of the scrolls have crumbled, but ruins of many ancient Egyptian libraries have been excavated. The catalogs of books were found carved into the stone library walls. We do not know when great Babylon startEd its first library of clay tablets. But in 1853, the ruins of the library of old Nineveh were unearthed. More than 20,000 clay tablets were recovered some of them dating back 3000 years. So far, scientific research can prove that certain cultures have had libraries for more than 4000 years. And no doubt the ruins or records of still older libraries are waiting to be found in unexpected places.

The Greeks of Athens started libraries maybe 2500 years ago, and as their culture grew so did their respect for their libraries. They collected records from all over the world and established public libraries in their city states. The private collections of Plato and Aristotle were later taken to Alexandria in Egypt where in 332 B.C. the most famous library of the ancient world was founded.