Editing Public library (section)

===Early history===
The first libraries consisted of [[archive]]s of the [[Writing#The beginning of writing|earliest form of writing]] – the [[clay tablet]]s in [[cuneiform script]] discovered in temple rooms in [[Sumer]],{{sfnp|Casson|2001|p=3}}<ref name=Krasner>{{cite web |url= http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html |title=Survivor: The History of the Library |first=Barbara |last= Krasner-Khait |work=History Magazine |year=2010 |access-date=5 March 2012}}</ref> some dating back to 2600 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/05/06_tablet.shtml |title= Clay cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia to be placed online |first=Kathleen |last= Maclay |date=6 May 2003 |website=[[University of California, Berkeley]] |access-date=5 March 2012}}</ref> They appeared five thousand years ago in Southwest Asia's [[Fertile Crescent]], an area that ran from [[Mesopotamia]] to the Nile in Africa. Known as the cradle of civilization, the Fertile Crescent was likewise the birthplace of writing, sometime before 3000&nbsp;BC. (Murray, Stuart A.P.) These first libraries, which mainly consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark the end of [[prehistory]] and the start of [[history]].<ref>Renfrew, Colin (2008) ''Prehistory The Making of the Human Mind'', New York: Modern Library.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3QZXvUhGwhAC&pg=PA35 |title=A Short History of the World |first=John Morris|page=35 |last= Roberts |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |access-date=7 March 2012|isbn=9780195115048 }}</ref>

Things were very similar in the government and temple records on [[papyrus]] of [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name=Krasner/> The earliest discovered private archives were kept at [[Ugarit]]; besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes.

Persia at the time of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (550–330&nbsp;BC) was home to some outstanding libraries that were serving two main functions: keeping the records of administrative documents (e.g., transactions, governmental orders, and budget allocation within and between the [[Satrapies]] and the central ruling State)<ref>Rajabi, Parviz. 1381. The lost Milleniums, Vol 3, Toos Publication, {{ISBN|964-315-573-0}}</ref> and collection of resources on different sets of principles e.g. medical science, astronomy, history, geometry and philosophy.

A public library<!-- said to be the first, at least in the West, but this conflicts with the statements about the Greek/Hellenistic world – unless it is not considered part of the West; or the Greek libraries might not count because "[u]nlike the Greek libraries, readers had direct access to the scrolls [of Roman libraries]" --> was established in Rome by the first century BC, in the [[Atrium Libertatis]] (see {{slink|History of libraries|Classical period}} and {{slink|Gaius Asinius Pollio|Later life}}).<!-- Was the [[Library of Alexandria]] a public library? Oddly, there does not seem to be any clear statement on this. But if it was one, it should be mentioned here as a predecessor. --> However, the first major public library is said to have been established in Athens by Pisistratus in the sixth century BC (see {{slink|Library of Alexandria|Historical background}}), and by the end of the [[Hellenistic period]], public libraries are said to have been widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean (see {{slink|Library of Alexandria|In antiquity}}).

Historian [[Yahya of Antioch]] (d. 1066) reported that the Fatimid Caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]] ({{reign | 996 | 1021}}) financed and established libraries open to the public, where anyone, even the simple non-specialists, could choose whatever books they wanted and have them copied by public scribes, free of charge.<ref name="ant">{{cite book |author1= Yahya ibn Said al-Antaki |author-link1= Yahya of Antioch |title= Kitāb taʼrih̲ d̲ayl (Continuation de la chronique d'Eutychius d'Alexandrie (Saʿid ibn Bitrīq) pour la période 938-1034) |date= 1066}}</ref> However, as with many of his other decisions, Al-Hakim later ordered this policy to be reversed.<ref name="ant"/>

In Cesena, Italy, the first community-run public library, the [[Biblioteca Malatestiana|Malatestiana Library]], was established in 1447, provided both secular and religious texts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and was fully open to all members of the public.

Another early library that allowed access to the public was Kalendars or Kalendaries, a brotherhood of clergy and laity who were attached to the Church of All-Halloween or [[All Saints' Church, Bristol|All Saints]] in [[Bristol]], England. Records show that in 1464, provision was made for a library to be erected in the house of the Kalendars. A reference is made to a deed of that date by which it was "appointed that all who wish to enter for the sake of instruction shall have 'free access and recess' at certain times."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stephen|first1=G.A.|title=Three centuries of a city library: a historical and descriptive account of the Norwich Public Library established in 1608 and the present public library opened in 1837|url=https://archive.org/details/threecenturiesof00step|date=1917|publisher=Norwich: Public Library Committee}}</ref>

In 1598, Francis Trigge established a library in a room above St. Wulfram's Church in [[Grantham, Lincolnshire]] and decreed that it should be open to the clergy and residents of the surrounding neighborhood. Some scholars consider this library an "ancestor" to public libraries since its patrons did not need to belong to an existing organization like a church or college to use it. However, all the books in the library were chained to stalls and unavailable to borrow, hence its name: the Francis Trigge Chained Library.<ref>Murray, Stuart. The Library: an Illustrated History. Skyhorse Pub, 2009.</ref>
[[File:Milano - Pinacoteca Ambrosiana - 2024-09-20 18-44-45 001.jpg|thumb|The [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]] in [[Milan]], founded in 1609 by Cardinal [[Federico Borromeo]]]]

In the early years of the 17th century, many famous collegiate and town libraries were founded in England. [[Norwich]] City library was established in 1608<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.norfolkrecordsociety.org.uk/reviews/LXXII.htm|title=Norwich City Library 1608 - 1737: The Minutes, Donation Book and Catalogue of Norwich City Library, Founded in 1608|last=Anon|work=Norfolk Record Society|access-date=18 November 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711070121/http://www.norfolkrecordsociety.org.uk/reviews/LXXII.htm|archive-date=11 July 2010}}</ref> (six years after [[Thomas Bodley]] founded the [[Bodleian Library]], which was open to the "whole republic of the learned") and [[Chetham's Library]] in Manchester, which claims to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, opened in 1653.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chethams.org.uk/|title=Welcome to Chetham's Library|last=Anon|work=Chetham's Library Home page|access-date=18 November 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918201611/http://www.chethams.org.uk/|archive-date=18 September 2009}}</ref>
[[File:BIBLIOTECA PALAFOXIANA.tif|thumb|[[Biblioteca Palafoxiana]] in [[Puebla (city)|Puebla City]], Mexico (founded 1646)]]
[[Biblioteca Palafoxiana]] in [[Puebla (city)|Puebla City]], Mexico, is recognized by [[UNESCO]] for being the first public library in the [[Americas]]. It was founded in 1646 by [[Juan de Palafox y Mendoza]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Biblioteca Palafoxiana|url=http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/mow/nomination_forms/mexico+palafoxiana.pdf|publisher=UNESCO|access-date=27 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Brescia|first=Michael M.|title=Liturgical Expressions of Episcopal Power: Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and Tridentine Reform in Colonial Mexico| journal=The Catholic Historical Review|date=July 2004| volume=90 |issue=3| pages=497–518| doi=10.1353/cat.2004.0116|jstor=25026636| s2cid=159841691}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to the Book| year=2010| publisher=Oxford University Press|author=Sherman, William H.|chapter=Palafoxiana, Biblioteca|editor1=Suarez, Michael F. |editor2=Woudhuysen, H. R. }}</ref> 
In his seminal work {{Lang|fr|Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque}} (1644) the French scholar and librarian [[Gabriel Naudé]] asserted that only three libraries in all [[Europe]] granted in his times regular access to every scholar, namely the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]] in Milan, the {{Lang|it|[[Biblioteca Angelica]]|italic=no}} in Rome, and the [[Bodleian Library]] in Oxford.<ref>{{cite book|page=121|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9F2DwAAQBAJ|author=[[Jonathan Irvine Israel]]|title=Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=9780198206088}}</ref>