- Libraries, in some form or other date back as far as 2600 BC A Library then consisted of collections of clay tablets in cuneiform script, the earliest form of writing. Private or personal libraries made up of written books came along in classical Greece in the 5th century BC.
- The first recorded librarian was called Zenodotus. He was a scholar who lived in Ephesus, Greece. He was the first librarian of the Library of Alexandria, which was set up by the king Ptolemy I and developed by Ptolemy II. A proportion of their collection came from ships visiting the city, which were required to hand over any books they had on board. Staff at the library would copy the books, and give the copies back to the ships while keeping the originals.
- The oldest library still functioning is at the St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, Egypt, which dates back to the 6th century. Its collection of religious material is second only to the Vatican; but it's not open to the public. Only monks and invited scholars can use it. The oldest functioning public library is in Paris and dates back to 1368.
- Famous people who worked as librarians include Philip Larkin, Casanova, Lewis Carroll, John Dee the Renaissance magician, J. Edgar Hoover, Andre Norton, Madeleine L'Engle, Marcel Proust, Philip Pullman and Mao Zedong.
- The largest library in the world is The US Library of Congress. It has 838 miles of bookshelves, 36 million books and other print materials, 3.5 million recordings, 13.7 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 6.7 million pieces of sheet music and 69 million manuscripts. By contrast there is a library in New York City made from recycled plastic which has just 40 books and has room for just one visitor at a time. The highest library in the world is on the 60th floor of the JW Marriott Hotel at Tomorrow Square in Shanghai, China, 230.9m (757 ft 6 in) above street level.
- The first mobile library started in the 1850s, in Cumbria. A Victorian merchant and philanthropist called George Moore started it in order to “diffuse good literature among the rural population.”
- The books most often stolen from libraries are the Bible and the Guinness Book of World Records.
- When you think of a library you most likely think of books, but there are libraries which lend all kinds of other things, too. Record libraries, where you can borrow music are fairly common. In Germany, there are a few libraries where people can borrow works of art by local painters and sculptors to have in their homes for a few months. There are libraries which "lend" seeds - the checked out seeds aren't returned, as they are planted, but when the resulting plants produce their own seeds, the "borrower" replaces the seeds they took. There are even about 150 libraries in the world which lend out people. You can borrow a person and listen to their stories.
- The ‘Copyright Act 1911’ stipulates that The British Library must receive a copy of every item published or distributed in the United Kingdom (including pamphlets, magazines, Newspapers, sheet Music and maps). This is known as ‘legal deposit’, and can be traced back to at least 1610. One book the British Library may not have anymore is a volume called Hand Grenade Throwing as a College Sport - which was destroyed by bombing.
- There is a book in the Welsh National Library entitled ‘Old King Cole’, which measures 1mm x 1mm. The pages can only be turned by using a Needle.
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