The History of the Library in Western Civilization: A Review Essay

Historically, the materials have been defined in terms of the media on or in which the information is recorded-clay tablets, papyrus rolls, codex books, tapes, disks, and so on. second, the library is commonly considered to be an organization in which an administration and staff of professionals hired for the purpose (normally located in a facility adapted or constructed also for the purpose) function to maintain a collection of information materials. Considering the paucity of documentary sources that have survived on which substantial understanding of the development of libraries in the first three and a half millennia of writing can be based, library historians must make as much as possible from studying both the configuration of physical remains and descriptions of furnishings and utilization of library spaces.