Editing Research library (section)

==History==
[[File:Library of Ashurbanipal.jpg|thumb|Artifacts from the [[Library of Ashurbanipal]], established in the 7th century BC in present-day [[Iraq]]]]
Libraries first appeared in Southwest Asia more than 5,000 years ago as repositories to store written resources for retrieval, often written on materials like bamboo, clay, and later [[papyrus]]. The most durable of these materials was clay, and tablets made of clay are the most common artifacts retrieved from ancient library sites.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Stuart |url=http://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr |title=The library : an illustrated history |date=2009 |publisher=New York, NY : Skyhorse Pub.; Chicago : American Library Association |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-60239-706-4}}</ref> Many great civilizations built libraries which contained knowledge and information that were accumulated over years, sometimes centuries, and from across regions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Libraries {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/a-brief-history-of-libraries |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

The oldest known library in the world was excavated in [[Ebla]] in northern Syria. Excavation of the site of the ancient city began in 1964 and archeologists have since uncovered more than 20,000 clay tablets that documented the economic and cultural life of the city's residents. Archives dating back to 3000 BC were also discovered in 1975.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ebla {{!}} ancient city, Syria {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ebla |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The library also contained scientific records and observations on topics such as [[zoology]], [[mineralogy]], and information on Ebla's business and tax issues.<ref name=":6" />

One of the greatest ancient libraries in the world was the [[Library of Ashurbanipal]], which was founded in the 7th century BC in Niveah, near present-day [[Iraq]], by the Assyrian king [[Ashurbanipal]]. The library contained around 30,000 [[cuneiform]] tablets written in multiple languages pertaining to scholarly texts, archival documents and religious materials along with some works of ancient literature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Evan |title=8 Legendary Ancient Libraries |url=https://www.history.com/news/8-impressive-ancient-libraries |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> The king sent his scribes to other libraries in the region to record their contents to create a register of contents.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Computers for Librarians {{!}} ScienceDirect |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9781876938604/computers-for-librarians |access-date=2022-05-27 |isbn=9781876938604 |language=en |last1=Ferguson |first1=Stuart J. |last2=Hebels |first2=Rodney |date=August 2003 |publisher=Elsevier Science }}</ref>

Probably the most renowned library in the ancient world was the [[Library of Alexandria|Great Library of Alexandria]], in [[Alexandria|Egypt]]. The library was part of the royal complex that included the research institution known as the [[Musaeum|Mouseion]], and is believed to have been established during the reigns of [[Ptolemy I Soter]] (367–283 BC) and his son [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] (285–246 BC).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Library of Alexandria {{!}} Description, Facts, & Destruction {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Alexandria |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tracy |first=Stephen V. |title=Demetrius of Phalerum<!--do not change bad meta-data -->|editor = William W. Fortenbaugh, Eckart Schütrumpf |date=2000 |pages=331–346 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781351326926-3 |chapter=Demetrius of Phalerum Who was He and Who was He Not? <!--do not change  --> |isbn=9781351326926 }}</ref> 
There are report that the library at its height had up to 400,000 scrolls, though there is uncertainty regarding the exact number and how many scrolls were original works, as some of these may have been copies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bagnall |first=R. |date=2002 |title=Alexandria: Library of Dreams |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |language=en |volume=146 |issue=4|s2cid=188023257 }}</ref> The works collected covered a wide range of topics including works by [[Homer]], [[Herodotus]], [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]]. The library drew scholars from across the world and led to Alexandria being known as a hub for knowledge and learning.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Tom Garlinghouse |date=2022-03-14 |title=The rise and fall of the Great Library of Alexandria |url=https://www.livescience.com/rise-and-fall-of-the-great-alexandria-library |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=livescience.com |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Library of Congress|US Library of Congress]] is one of the largest and most well-known research libraries in the world. It is the [[United States Congress|United States Congress']] official research library and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country, having been founded in 1800. It contains more than 170 million items that cover a wide range of subjects from across the world and in 470 different languages. The library has offices abroad through which it is able to acquire and maintain materials that are not easily available through traditional acquisition methods.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fascinating Facts {{!}} About the Library {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/about/fascinating-facts/ |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>