Famous libraries
See also: Great libraries of the ancient world Categories: Defunct libraries | Lists of libraries | Cultural lists | Lists of buildings and structures Library of Alençon Alençon is a commune in Normandy, France, capital of the Orne department. It is situated 105 miles west of Paris. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alençon (with 52,000 people) (built c. 1800)Some of the greatest libraries in the world are research libraries. The most famous ones include The Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library The New York Public Library is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries. It is composed of a very large circulating public library system combined with a very large non-lending research library system. It is simultaneously one of the largest public library systems in the in New York City Education in New York City is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. The city's public school system, the New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the United States, and New York is home to some of the most important libraries, universities, and research centers in the world. The city is particularly known as, the National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia. It should not be confused with the Russian State Library, located in Moscow in St Petersburg Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг , tr.: Sankt-Peterburg, Russian pronunciation: [sankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk] or Russian pronunciation: [sankt pʲətʲerˈburk]) is a city and a federal subject (a federal city) of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names, the British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is the world's largest research library, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings and much more. Its book in London London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom. It has been an influential city for two millennia, and its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, then named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the name ", Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine in Paris Paris (pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English, [paʁi] in French) is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely unchanged since, National Library of Spain The Biblioteca Nacional de España is a major public library, the largest in Spain. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London, and the Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the.
- Abbey library of St. Gallen It is the oldest library in Switzerland, and one of earliest and most important monastic libraries in the world. It holds 2,100 manuscripts dating back to the 8th through the 15th centuries, 1,650 incunabula , and old printed books. The library holds almost 160,000 volumes. The manuscript B of the Nibelungenlied is kept here founded in 612 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term. A World Heritage Site is a place of either cultural or physical significance.
- Ambrosian Library The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo , whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and Syria for books and manuscripts. Some major acquisitions of complete in Milan Milan (Italian: Milano; Western Lombard: Milan is the second largest city in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. Milan is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the regional capital of Lombardy. The city has a population of about 1.3 million, while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.08 million. The opened to the public, December 8 December 8 is the 342nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 23 days remaining until the end of the year, 1609 Year 1609 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).
- Baghdad Baghdad or Bagdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest (after Cairo) in the Arab World's House of Wisdom The House of Wisdom was a library and translation institute in Abbassid-era Baghdad, Iraq. It was a key institution in the Translation Movement and considered to have been a major intellectual center of the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom acted as a society founded by Abbasid caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son al-Ma'mun who reigned from 81, founded in 8th century AD.
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine (BNF) in Paris Paris (pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English, [paʁi] in French) is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely unchanged since, 1720.
- Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. Known to Oxford scholars as “Bodley” or simply “the Bod”, under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works at University of Oxford The University of Oxford , located in the City of Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is also regarded as the best university in the UK according to many of the most recent League tables of British universities. The name is sometimes abbreviated as Oxon. in post-nominals (from the Latin 1602, books collection begin around 1252.
- Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to in Boston Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ ) is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England". Boston, 1826.
- British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is the world's largest research library, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings and much more. Its book in London London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom. It has been an influential city for two millennia, and its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, then named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the name " created in 1973 by the British Library Act of 1972 (Originally part of the British Museum The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.[a] founded 1753).
- British Library of Political and Economic Science The British Library of Political and Economic Science is the main library of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the world's largest social science library in London London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom. It has been an influential city for two millennia, and its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, then named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the name ", 1896.
- Butler Library The Nicholas Murray Butler Library, commonly known simply as Butler Library, is the largest single library in the Columbia University Library System, which contains over 9.3 million books, and is one of the largest buildings on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. Proposed as "South Hall" by the University's former at Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. It was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of King George II of England (One of only two, 1934
- Cairo - Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,'s library of Cairo Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the, founded in the 10th century
- Cambridge University Library The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of the University of Cambridge in England. It comprises five separate libraries: at University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the sixth oldest in Europe. The name is sometimes abbreviated as Cantab. in post-nominals, a shortened form of Cantabrigiensis (an adjective derived from Cantabrigia, the Latinised form, 1931.
- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh is the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is 2,462,571. The city's Downtown retains substantial economic influence,, 1895.
- Carnegie library Carnegie libraries are libraries which were built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. More than 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, including some belonging to public and university library systems. Carnegie earned the nickname Patron Saint of Libraries Total of 2,509, between 1883 and 1929.
- Carolina Rediviva at Uppsala University Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded as early as 1477, it is the oldest such institution in the Nordic countries, and for centuries has been one of Europe's most renowned seats of learning, 1841.
- Chetham's Library in Manchester, the oldest surviving public library in England
- Dutch Royal Library The Koninklijke Bibliotheek is the national library of The Netherlands, based in The Hague and founded in 1798. King Lodewijk Napoleon gave its current name in 1806. The institution became independent of the state in 1996, although it is financed by the Department of Education, Culture and Science in The Hague The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 (as of May 31, 2009) (population of agglomeration: 1,011,459[citation needed]) and an area of approximately 100 km². It is located in the west of the country, in the province of South Holland, of which it is also the provincial, 1798.
- Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,'s Library of Alexandria The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was probably the largest, and certainly the most famous, of the libraries of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and existed, and functioned as a major center of scholarship, at least until the time of Rome's conquest (founded in 3rd century BC) and modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a major library and cultural center located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. It is both a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity and an attempt to rekindle something of the brilliance that this earlier center of study and erudition represented.
- Firestone Library Princeton University Library is the library of Princeton University. It is headquartered in the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library building, named after tire magnate Harvey Firestone. Firestone Library opened in 1948, as the first large American university library constructed after World War II. Roughly 1.5 million volumes were moved during the at Princeton University Princeton University is a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges, 1948
- Fisher Library The University of Sydney Library is the library system of the University of Sydney. According to its publications, it is the largest academic library in the southern hemisphere, with a print collection of over 5.1 million items . It is composed of over fourteen libraries across nine campuses of the university. The main building, Fisher Library, is at the University of Sydney (largest in the Southern Hemisphere), 1908
- Franklin Public Library in Franklin, Massachusetts (the first public library in the U.S.; original books donated by Benjamin Franklin in 1731)
- Free Library of Philadelphia in Philadelphia established February 18, 1891.
- Garrison Library in Gibraltar, 1793.
- Geisel Library of UCSD, part of University of California, San Diego.
- Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, 1924.
- Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the Canada-US border.
- House of Commons Library, Westminster, London. Established 1818.
- Islamic Spain's library of Cordoba, founded in 9th century.
- Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, founded between 669-631 BC.
- The European Library, 2004
- Tripoli's Dar il-'ilm, destroyed in 1109.
- ITU Mustafa Inan Library. Established 1795. The largest collection on technical (science and engineering) materials in Turkey.
- Jagiellonian Library at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, 1364.
- Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia founded 1802.
- John Rylands Library in Manchester 1899
- Leiden University Library at Leiden University in Leiden began at 1575 with confiscated monastery books. Officially open in October 31, 1587.
- Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 1800
- Library of Sir Thomas Browne, 1711
- Merton College Library in Oxford, circa 1373
- Mitchell Library in Glasgow (one of the largest public references libraries in Europe)
- Multnomah County Library in Oregon, largest public library west of the Mississippi River, 1864.
- National Library of Australia in Canberra, Australia
- National Library of Belarus in Minsk, 1922
- National Library of Iran, 1937
- National Library of Ireland in Dublin, 1877
- National library of Israel (formerly: Jewish National and University Library) in Jerusalem, Israel, 1892.
- National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, 1925
- National Library of Spain in Madrid, 1711
- National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, 1907
- New York Public Library in New York
- Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Powell Library at UCLA, part of the UCLA Library.
- Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, one of the largest repositories of books in the world.
- Royal Library in Copenhagen, 1793.
- Russian State Library in Moscow, 1862.
- Sassanid's ancient Library of Gondishapur around 489.
- Seattle Central Library
- Staatsbibliothek in Berlin
- State Library of New South Wales in Sydney
- State Library of Victoria in Melbourne
- Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, 1931.
- St. Mary's Church, Reigate, Surrey houses the first public lending library in England. Opened 14 March 1701.
- The St. Philip's Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in Charleston, South Carolina, was the first public lending library in the American Colonies. See also Benjamin Franklin's free public library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Trinity College Library, in Trinity College, Dublin, the largest library in Ireland. Since 1592.
- Vatican Library in Vatican City, 1448 (but existed before).
- Wellcome Library in London
- Widener Library at Harvard University (Harvard University Library including all branches has the largest academic collection overall.)
Some libraries devoted to a single subject:
- Chess libraries
- Esperanto libraries
- Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the world's largest genealogy library.
For more extensive lists, see
- List of libraries that are the subject of a Wikipedia article
- List of libraries
- List of national libraries
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