Libraries: Homes of Culture

Early libraries were early archives of recorded events that took place in surrounding areas. Their early contents were dry and informed seekers of information about places, people and groups. Libraries are much larger collections of books, knowledge and stories from the areas they are founded and distant lands. The transition is subtle but importance both serve to connect us to the past but libraries allow us to build into the future as well. 

Culture connects vast numbers of people because of what they share. A strict definition is impossible to achieve because of the ever changing nature of culture. It is the main influencer on our lives as humans. Culture directly impacts what what we eat, listen to, and think is right and wrong. It is how we interact with people we know and those we don’t. It encompases our beliefs and relies on our history. Culture is constantly changing because it is composed of people and outlasts a single lifetime. Culture grows with the inception of ideas and gain of new customs and information. We know how a culture changes because we can refer to where it was and where it is now. Put simply, culture relies on history. History is gathered in libraries therefore so is culture. 

Libraries are popular targets of invading forces because they are house of culture. 
Conquest is easier for the invading empire when their conquests submit to the dominant culture. Destroying libraries and their contents is an attack on the conquered people’s culture and history purposefully meant to weaken it. Historically there are two ways to achieve submission: the destruction or absorbtion of the defeated people. Each yields varying results as we well see. Culture’s fluidity, diffusion and annihilation riddle every note of history that has been ad will be found.

The shift from archives to libraries and the significant cultural heritage produced will be examined in the sights outlined here starting with the Library of Ashurbanipal and forward through time with the Library of Alexandria, the First public Library of Rome, the House of Wisdom, Glasney College, the University of Leuven Library to modern day with the Vennesla Library and Cultural House.