11 interesting facts about the library. Interesting facts about libraries around the world

A library is an ordinary and at the same time amazing place where books live. Sometimes we don’t realize how many interesting things are connected with them.

I invite you to look at interesting photographs and read interesting facts about libraries and books.

Bookstore Livraria Lello in Porto (Portugal) - one of the most spectacular bookstores in the world. The store building is an architectural monument with almost a hundred years of history. The books are framed in neo-Gothic shelves with carved figures of literary characters.

Bookstore in Portugal

Libreria El Ateneo Grand Splendid is a bookstore in Buenos Aires (Argentina), which is not only included in the list of the largest in the world, but is also considered one of the most beautiful. The store is located in a theater built at the beginning of the twentieth century and has completely preserved the original theater furnishings, complementing it with books.

Bookstore in Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Abdul Kassim Ismail - the great vizier of Persia (10th century) was always near his library. If he went somewhere, the library “followed” him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by four hundred camels. Moreover, the books (i.e. camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.

Abdul Qassim Ismail Portable Library

In public In the libraries of medieval Europe, books were chained to the shelves. Such chains were long enough to remove a book from the shelf and read, but did not allow the book to be taken out of the library. This practice was common until the 18th century, which was due to the great value of each copy of the book.

The largest publication in the world is the 1,112-volume edition of the British Parliamentary Papers , published by the University of Ireland Press 1968-1972. The complete edition weighs 3.3 tons, costs 50 thousand f. Art. To read the full edition, you need to spend 6 years even if you read 10 hours a day.

The heaviest book in the world is considered to be a geographical atlas, stored in the British Museum in London. Atlas is more than one meter high and weighs 320 kilograms.

The longest biography in the history of printing is the life story of the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. It was written by Churchill's son Randolph and Martin Gilbert. This book contains as many as 22 thick volumes.

Slovak artist Matej Kren created an unusual installation - a book fortress. Externally, the installation resembles a small fortress, but it The 8-meter walls are made not of bricks, but of books.

To one of the libraries in the Finnish city of Vantaa quietly returned a book that was issued over 100 years ago. According to the library worker, they were never able to find out who brought the book to the library. However, judging by the notes on the inside cover, the book was last officially issued in the beginning of the twentieth century.

And a few more interesting photos. Let's see!

Library stand made of books

Tree bookends

An interesting invention for book lovers

creative bookshelf

Unusual bookshelves

Creative bed in the form of a book

One of the projects of the Novosibirsk Regional Scientific Library
was presented in the form of a stack of books

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Fact 1. The first books similar to modern ones appeared around the 1st century AD. They were made of wood. Melted wax was poured onto the tablet pages and, while it was still soft, they smoothed it out. They wrote on the hardened wax with a sharp metal stick. Several planks were connected with a cord to form a book. Parchment was used as a material for book pages back in the 2nd century BC in the city of Pergamum (Asia Minor). It was made as follows. Calf or sheep skin was soaked in lime mortar, dried, stretched on a frame, smoothed with pumice, and finally honey was rubbed into the skin. A whole herd of calves had to be slaughtered to make parchment for one thick book. Then copyists and bookbinders worked on the book for many months. Sometimes parchment was reused. The previous text was washed off with milk or scraped off with a knife. New text was written on cleaned parchment. This is how many ancient, sometimes priceless, books were destroyed.

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Fact 2. The so-called Priss papyrus is considered the oldest book on Earth. It was created in 3350 BC. This book was found in one of the pyramids of the city of Thebes. Interestingly, the theme of the Priss papyrus is still very relevant today. This is the so-called generational conflict. The author of the oldest book complains that young people are ill-mannered, lazy and vicious. As you can see, nothing has changed in more than five thousand years. The papyrus is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

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Fact 3. Some scroll books were very long. The library of the British Museum contains the Harris Papyrus, about 45 meters long.

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Fact 4. Clay books were produced in ancient Assyria. Their pages had a format of 32 x 32 centimeters and were 2.5 centimeters thick - a real flat brick. There were dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of such pages in the book.

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Fact 5. The largest book in the world was presented this year at the International Book Fair in Havana. The collection of sayings of famous people is 380 centimeters in length and 350 centimeters in height. And another great book in the world is in one of the Dutch museums in Amsterdam. This book is called "Collection of maritime rules." The height of the book is greater than the height of an average adult, its width is 1 meter, and its thickness is about half a meter.

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Fact 6. The first smallest book in the world was created in 1985 in Scotland, the book was so small that its pages could only be turned if there was a pin or needle, and even then you had to be very careful not to damage the pages. Its dimensions were 1 mm by 1 mm. The content of the book was the fairy tale "Old King Cole" paper thickness 22 g/m2. The book was released in an edition of 90 copies.

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Artist from Novosibirsk Vladimir Aniskin Book from a poppy seed The smallest book in the world, which was immediately included in the Guinness Book of Records, was created by the Novosibirsk artist Vladimir Aniskin. The record was recorded on March 30, 2016. The master himself has been engaged in the art of miniatures since 1998, and he owns such works of this genre as a shod flea, a caravan of camels in the eye of a needle, as well as inscriptions on human hair. V. Aniskin managed to place his book on two halves of a poppy seed. In the very center of its cut there is a plate of gold. On its upper part there is a book itself, and for the convenience of readers, individual pages are laid out below. The sheets of the microbook are fastened together with a thin spring, and they can be flipped through like a desk calendar. As it turns out, threading pages onto springs is the most difficult operation in the entire process of making a microbook. The size of this “edition” is 0.07x0.09 mm.

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Fact 7. The most expensive book in the world at the moment is a notebook of notes by Leonardo da Vinci, made by him during his life in Milan in 1506-1510. The manuscript consists of 18 sheets of paper, written on both sides and folded in such a way that together they form a 72-page notebook. Leonardo's notes are written in a special way, in his own “mirror” font - they can only be read with the help of a mirror. The entries are devoted to various phenomena whose nature Leonardo thought about: why the Moon glows, how and why water flows in rivers, where fossils come from, what minerals are made of, and so on. The notebook also contains a large number of mathematical calculations, diagrams and drawings. The Codex Leicester was named after the Earl of Leicester, who purchased the manuscript in 1717. In 1980, the notebook was bought from Lester’s heirs by the famous industrialist, collector and friend of the Soviet regime, Armand Hammer. It was bought for 44 million 600,000 US dollars.

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One of the longest titles was given to a book published in London in 1633. This header consisted of 45 lines. The author of the book anathematized theater and actors. Fact 8. One of the longest titles was given to a book published in London in 1633. This header consisted of 45 lines. The author of the book anathematized theater and actors.

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Fact 9. Publishing curiosities include the creation of books in the 17th century in the following way. The letters were not printed on the pages, but cut out. Colored paper was placed under a sheet with cut out outlines of letters. The contours of the letters turned out to be colored, they could be read. Only about 25 copies of such books, created in an unprecedentedly labor-intensive way, have survived to this day. A book was published in Austria containing 58 stories, each of them printed on paper of a different color.

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Fact 10. In France, a book of poems was published, printed on wrapping paper using the “reversal” method - white on black. In the 1934 American calendar, January and February were printed on blotter paper, March and April on cigarette paper, May and June on mosquito paper, July and August on mosquito paper, September and October on typewriter carbon, November and December - on filter paper. At different times, books were printed on silk, satin, materials and newspaper editions varied. In France, a newspaper was published, printed with edible printing ink on thinly rolled dough. Another French newspaper was printed on thin rubber so that it could be read while swimming. In Spain, one of the newspapers had luminous letters so that it could be read in the dark. In England, cloth was used instead of paper, and the newspaper served as a handkerchief after reading.

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As for the most read books in the world, the palm undoubtedly belongs to the Bible. Its total circulation is six billion copies. In second place is Mao Zedong's book of quotes, and third place goes to The Lord of the Rings. But the most popular writer is Agatha Christie. 78 of her detective stories have sold about 2 billion copies and have been translated into 44 languages. Fact 11. As for the most read books in the world, the palm undoubtedly belongs to the Bible. Its total circulation is six billion copies. In second place is Mao Zedong's book of quotes, and third place goes to The Lord of the Rings. But the most popular writer is Agatha Christie. 78 of her detective stories have sold about 2 billion copies and have been translated into 44 languages.

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Fact 12. Napoleon Bonaparte, commander Honore de Balzac, writer Napoleon read at a speed of two thousand words per minute. Balzac read a two hundred page novel in half an hour.

Source: http://books.tmel.ru/

Some facts about libraries and people's relationship with books are simply amazing.

Fact 1.

The Library of Congress in Washington is by far the largest in the world. It contains about 75 million different items, including audio and video recordings, photographs. To get acquainted with at least a third of the literature stored in the library, a lifetime is not enough.

Fact 2.

IN THE USA more public libraries than McDonald's.

Fact 3.

If we divide all the books stored in the Moscow “public” library by all employees, we get 29,830 copies per person.

Fact 4.

The largest library of the ancient world that has survived to this day is the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (VII century BC), who was not so much an avid reader as he loved collecting texts. Even during wars and army campaigns, Ashurbanipal captured entire cuneiform libraries. Most of the collection of texts discovered by archaeologists consists of 25,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts.

Fact 5.

Stephen Bloomberg

Bibliocleptomania is not just a difficult word to pronounce. This is a real disease, which is characterized by an immense love for books and the desire to appropriate library copies for oneself. One of the most famous representatives of this disease, Stephen Bloomberg, stole more than 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries in different parts of the world. To build his collection, estimated at about $20 million, Bloomberg used a variety of methods, sometimes sneaking into the library through the ventilation system and elevator shaft.

Fact 6.

Abdul Qassim Ismail - the great vizier of Persia (10th century) was always near his library. If he went somewhere, the library “followed” him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by four hundred camels. Moreover, the books (i.e. camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.

Fact 7.

IN high-ranking an FBI agent posted a secret internal manual detailing the Bureau's interrogation procedures in Library of Congress, where any person with library cardcan read it.

Fact 8.

In Ancient Egypt, all ships visiting the city of Alexandria were required to deposit their books at the library for copying. The original remained in the library, and the copy was returned to the owner.

Fact 9.

There are some kind of ghost libraries, the existence of which is known for certain, but their location can only be guessed at. One of the most mysterious collections of books is the library of Ivan the Terrible. According to one version, the library is hidden within the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

Fact 10.

When the film Groundhog Day was released, the Washington Post wrote that "the film will never included to the Library of Congress". In 2006 the film was selected National Council to save in US Library of Congress.

Fact 11

There are libraries where you can call a person as a live books and listen to his stories. There are 150 such libraries in the world.

Fact 12.

In some German cities have public "art libraries" where you pay up to five euros and take paintings and sculptures local artists to admire them in own home for several months.

Fact 13.

When you post book in Norway, Norwegian government buys 1000 copies of your book and distributes them across all libraries in the country.

Fact 14.

At the age of 9, Ron McNair (the African-American astronaut who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986) refused to leave the segregated Lake City public library because his books were being searched. After the police and his mother were called, he was allowed to take the books from the library that now bears his name.

Fact 15.

In public libraries in medieval Europe, books were chained to the shelves. Such chains were long enough to remove a book from the shelf and read, but did not allow the book to be taken out of the library. This practice was widespread until the 18th century, due to the great value of each copy of the book.

Fact 16.

All books in the US Library of Congress in digital form occupy only 15 terabytes.

Fact 17.

IN THE USA public libraries became one of the first institutions of racial integration because whites in general did not mind reading in the same room as people of color. Some of them were I’m even ashamed of the time when libraries were divided.

Fact 18.

One of the most prominent examples of philanthropy was industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who founded 2,509 libraries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries throughout the English-speaking world, including the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Of these, 1,679 were built in the United States. Carnegie spent more than $55 million of his fortune on libraries alone and is therefore often referred to as the "patron saint of libraries."

Fact 19.

Haskell - b free library built on AmericanCanadian border. Exiting the library through the opposite entrance requires a mark on country customs in the future.

Fact 20.

124500 square feet former Walmart building in McAllen, Texas were converted into the largest one-story public library in the United States.

Fact 22.

Beinecke - library rare books and manuscripts Yale University has no windows because its walls are made from translucent marble.

Fact 23.

IN airport Schiphol library in Amsterdam (opened in 2010), Where you can borrow books in a trip "on parole". Not available in the library book return dates and librarians. If a passenger wants to keep a book, the airport simply asks to leave another book in return.

Fact 24.

A book handed out over 100 years ago was quietly returned to one of the libraries in the Finnish city of Vantaa. According to the library worker, they were never able to find out who brought the book to the library. However, judging by the notes on the inside cover, the book was last officially issued at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Fact 25.

In Norway you can return book from the library anywhere in the country no matter where you got it.

Fact 26.

Majority major American libraries (public or private) are federal depositories. It means that they are required by law to provide you with access to the library and computer access, regardless your social status if you want to see your documents.

Fact 27.

Auckland Library in California it's called "Library of tools lending" and contains 3,500 instruments.

Fact 28.

Fact 29.

In the 17th century, Nicolas Grollier de Servier came up with a machine to speed up the reading of books: a kind of mill wheel with book stands instead of blades, on which several books were simultaneously placed, open to the required pages.

Fact 30.

Napoleon read at a speed of two thousand words per minute. Balzac read a two hundred page novel in half an hour. M. Gorky read at a speed of four thousand words per minute. T. Edison read 2-3 lines at once, memorizing the text in almost pages thanks to maximum concentration.

In the Middle Ages, monasteries had libraries with scriptoria (workshops for copying manuscripts). With the invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, the number of libraries began to increase, and in modern times, with the spread of literacy, the number of library visitors also increased.

When the great vizier of Persia, Abdul Kassim Ismail (10th century AD), was getting ready to travel, the library followed him everywhere. 117 thousand alphabetically arranged book volumes were transported by four hundred camels.

The largest library in the world is the Library of Congress in the US capital Washington. Opened in 1800, the library contains more than 75 million titles. To take a fleeting glance at all the library's copies, you would need approximately 137 years of life.

The second largest library in the world is the Russian State Library (formerly the Lenin Library), created on the basis of the Rumyantsev Museum. The library's collection exceeds 42 million items.

For several centuries, scientists and archaeologists from all over the world have been trying to find a priceless artifact - a collection of books and documents of Ivan the Terrible. According to one version, the royal library was hidden within the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

The space library on board the Mir orbital complex contains more than a hundred books - from the works of Tsiolkovsky to the novels of Ilf and Petrov.

You will not find Agatha Christie's book "Ten Little Indians" in any American library. In America, the detective story is published under the title “And Then There Were None.” Based on censorship considerations, the blacks were initially replaced by Indians, and then by sailors.

In public libraries in medieval Europe, books were chained to the shelves. This practice was widespread until the 18th century, which was due to the great value of each copy of the book.

Stephen Bloomberg, who stole more than 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries, is considered one of the most famous bibliocleptomaniacs. To build his collection, estimated at about $20 million, Bloomberg used a variety of methods, sometimes sneaking into the library through the ventilation system and elevator shaft.

*The Library of Congress in Washington is by far the largest in the world. It contains about 75 million different items, including audio and video recordings, photographs.
* If we divide all the books stored in the Moscow “public” library among all employees, we get 29,830 copies per person.
*Library workers issue approximately 400 bibliographic references per day.
*The most mysterious library in the world is still the collection of documents and books of Ivan the Terrible. Historians believe that it was hidden or transported to another place by Ivan IV himself. For several centuries, scientists and archaeologists from all over the world have been trying to find a priceless artifact. According to one version, the library is hidden within the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

* Bibliocleptomania is not just a difficult word to pronounce, it is a real disease, which is characterized by an immense love for books and the desire to appropriate library copies for oneself. One of the most famous sufferers of this disease is Stephen Bloomberg, who stole more than 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries around the world. To build his collection, estimated at about $20 million, Bloomberg used a variety of methods: sometimes he sneaked into the library through ventilation system and elevator shaft.
*Abdul Kassim Ismail- the great vizier of Persia (10th century) was always near his library. If he went somewhere, the library “followed” him. 117 thousand book volumes were transported by four hundred camels. Moreover, the books (i.e. camels) were arranged in alphabetical order.
* In public In the libraries of medieval Europe, books were chained to the shelves.Such chains were long enough to remove a book from the shelf and read, but did not allow the book to be taken out of the library.This practice was common until the 18th century, which was due to the great value of each copy of the book.
* To one of the libraries in the Finnish city of Vantaaquietly returned a book that was issued over 100 years ago.According to the library worker, they were never able to find out who brought the book to the library. However, judging by the notes on the inside cover, the book was last officially issued in the beginning of the twentieth century.