Editing Librarian (section)

===The ancient world===
The [[Sumer]]ians were the first to train clerks to keep records of accounts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dunlap |first=Leslie W |title=Readings in library history |date=1972 |publisher=R.R. Bowker |oclc=578347151}}{{page needed|date=April 2021}}</ref> ''"Masters of the books"'' or "keepers of the tablets" were scribes or priests who were trained to handle the vast amount and complexity of these records. The extent of their specific duties is unknown.{{sfn|Rubin|2010|p=36}}

[[File:Maqamat hariri.jpg|thumb|right|Scholars at an Abbasid library in Baghdad (13th century)]]
Sometime in the 8th century BC, [[Ashurbanipal]], King of [[Assyria]], created a library at his palace in [[Nineveh]] in [[Mesopotamia]]. Ashurbanipal was the first individual in history to introduce librarianship as a profession.{{sfn|Mukherjee|1966|p=75}} We know of at least one "keeper of the books" who was employed to oversee the thousands of tablets on Sumerian and [[Babylonia]]n materials, including literary texts; history; [[omen]]s; astronomical calculations; mathematical tables; grammatical and linguistic tables; dictionaries; and commercial records and laws.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Sidney L |title=Libraries and librarianship in the West: a brief history |date=1974 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |oclc=576256876}}{{page needed|date=April 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Rubin|2010|p=37}} All of these tablets were cataloged and arranged in logical order by subject or type, each having an identification tag.{{sfn|Mukherjee|1966|p=75}}

The [[Great Library of Alexandria]], created by [[Ptolemy I]] after the death of [[Alexander the Great]] in 323 BC, was created to house the entirety of [[Ancient Greek literature|Greek literature]].{{sfn|Rubin|2010|p=38}} It was notable for its famous librarians: [[Demetrius of Phalerum|Demetrius]], [[Zenodotus]], [[Eratosthenes]], [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius]], [[Aristophanes]], [[Aristarchus of Samothrace|Aristarchus]], and [[Callimachus]].{{sfn|Mukherjee|1966|p=75}} These scholars contributed significantly to the collection and cataloging of the wide variety of scrolls in the library's collection. Most notably, Callimachus created what is considered to be the first subject catalog of the library holdings, called the [[pinakes]]. The pinakes contained 120 scrolls arranged into ten subject classes; each class was then subdivided, listing authors alphabetically by titles.{{sfn|Rubin|2010|p=38}} The librarians at Alexandria were considered the "custodians of learning".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lyle |first1=Guy Redvers |title=The President, the Professor, and the College Library |date=1963 |publisher=H.W. Wilson |oclc=1151086485 }}{{page needed|date=April 2021}}</ref>

Near the end of the [[Roman Republic]] and the beginning of the [[Roman Empire]], it was common for Roman aristocrats to hold [[private library|private libraries]] in their home. Many of these aristocrats, such as [[Cicero]], kept the contents of their private libraries to themselves, only boasting of the enormity of his collection. Others, such as [[Lucullus]], took on the role of lending librarian by sharing scrolls in their collection.{{sfn|Rubin|2010|p=39}} Many Roman emperors included [[public library|public libraries]] into their political [[propaganda]] to win favor from citizens. While scholars were employed in librarian roles in the various emperors' libraries, there was no specific office or role that qualified an individual to be a librarian. For example, Pompeius Macer, the first librarian of Augustus' library, was a [[praetor]], an office that combined both military and judicial duties. A later librarian of the same library was [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], a [[Grammarian (Greco-Roman world)|grammarian]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Michael H |title=History of libraries in the western world |date=1984 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=70 |oclc=560931943 }}</ref>