- Universal library
:"This article discusses universal libraries in general. For the project at Carnegie-Mellon, see
Universal library (Carnegie Mellon University) ."A universal library is a
library which contains all existing or useful information or knowledge.This ideal, although unrealizable, has influenced and continues to influence librarians and others.History
The
Library of Alexandria is generally regarded as the first library approaching universality, although this idea may be more mythical than real. [ [http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/lhg/alexandria.html Abstract] , The Alexandrian library and its aftermath, Uwe Jochum, presented at the Second Anglo-German seminar on library history, "The universal library: from Alexandria to the internet", London, September 1996.] It is estimated thatat one time, this library contained between 30 and 70 percent of all books in existence. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14publishing.html?ex=1305259200&en=c07443d368771bb8&ei=5090 Scan This Book!, "New York Times Magazine", May 14, 2006.] ]As a phrase, the 'universal library' can be traced back to the naturalist
Conrad Gessner 's "Bibliotheca universalis" of 1545.In the 17th century, the ideal of universality continued to be attractive.The French librarian
Gabriel Naudé wrote:And therefore I shall ever think it extreamly necessary, to collect for this purpose all sorts of books, (under such precautions, yet, as I shall establish) seeing a Library which is erected for the public benefit, ought to be universal; but which it can never be, unlesse it comprehend all the principal authors, that have written upon the great diversity of particular subjects, and chiefly upon all the arts and sciences; [...] For certainly there is nothing which renders a Library more recommendable, then when every man findes in it that which he is in search of ... ["Advis pour dresser une bibliotheque", Paris, 1627, translated by John Evelyn as "Instructions concerning erecting of a library", London, 1661, pp. 19–20.] [ [http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/lhg/alexandria.html Abstract] ,
C. G. Heyne and the university library at Göttingen: from 'Universalbibliothek' of the eighteenth century to the 'Sammlung Deutscher Drucke', 1701-1800, Graham Jefcoate and Gerd J. Boette, presented at the Second Anglo-German seminar on library history, "The universal library: from Alexandria to the internet", London, September 1996.]The universal library in fiction
Science fiction has used the device of a library which is universal in the sense that it not only contains all existing written works, but all possible written works. This idea appeared inKurd Laßwitz 's 1901 story "The Universal Library" and Borges's essay "The Total Library" before its more famous expression in Borges's story "The Library of Babel ". Such a library, however, would be as useless as it would be complete. A similar idea was a planet called Memory Alpha, (from the Star Trek episode "The Lights of Zetar ") which was the Federation's "storehouse of computer databases containing all cultural history and scientific data it has acquired.". [The Lights of Zetar, Wikipedia entry; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lights_of_Zetar] .] Also,Terry Pratchett , with his idea of all libraries in themultiverse being connected i "L-space", has thus created his own kind of universal library.It is a pessimistic opinion that the Internet already approaches this state. [The Internet and the revival of the myth of the universal library, Miroslav Kruk, "Australian Library Journal" 48, #2 (May 1999); [http://web.archive.org/web/20040803162151/http://clintongreen.tripod.com/universal.html abriged version] available online.]
Modern times
With the advent of cheap, widely available digital storage, the ideal of universality, although still impossible to attain, has become closer to the feasible. Many projects are now attempting to collect a section of human knowledge into one database. These projects vary in breadth and scope, and none are complete. Examples include digitization projects such as
Project Gutenberg andCarnegie-Mellon 's Universal library [ [http://ulib.org/ Universal Library website] ] ,
digital libraries which are usingbook scanning to collectpublic domain works;The European Library , an integrated catalog for Europe's national libraries;and theWikimedia Foundation , which, using theWiki system, is attempting to collect the breadth of important human knowledge under variousopen content projects such asWikipedia andWiktionary . However, many technical and legal problems remain for the dissemination of all possible knowledge on the Internet.ee also
*
Google Book Search
*Ibiblio
*Internet Archive
*List of digital library projects
*Open Content Alliance
*Virtual library
*The European Library
*Universal library %28Carnegie Mellon University%29
*Project Gutenberg
*Instituto Cervantes References
External links
* [http://books.google.com/googlebooks/newsviews/ Google Book Search: News & Views]
* [http://books.google.com/googleprint/library.html Google Library Project]
* [http://www.archive.org Internet Archive Home]
* [http://www.opencontentalliance.org/ Open Content Alliance] (Digital archive of global content for universal access, which Yahoo! and Microsoft joined in 2005)
* [http://www.openlibrary.org/ Open Library Home]
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]
* [http://ulib.org/ The Universal Library]
* [http://ulib.org/html/index.html The Universal Library] (older site)
* [http://www.archive.org/details/internetarchivebookscanning2005 Video from Open Content Alliance Launch, Oct 2005]
* [http://www.freescience.info/ FreeScience.info Library]News Articles
* [http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3607081 Building the Universal Library] , Chris Sherman, searchenginewatch.com,
May 18 ,2006 .
* [http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6322017.html The Birth of the Universal Library] , Jonathan B. Bengtson, article at libraryjournal.com,April 15 ,2006 .
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/26/yourmoney/msft.php Microsoft To Join Book-Search Alliance] , Katie Hafner, "International Herald Tribune",October 26 ,2005 .
* [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/310/5747/405.pdf Science and the Digital Divide] , editorial, "Science",October 21 ,2005 .
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/business/03yahoo.html?ex=1285992000&en=73ae4d4eda58b32a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss In Challenge to Google, Yahoo! Will Scan Books] , Katie Hafner, "New York Times",October 3 ,2005 .Blog Posts
* [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050119-083349 The Universal Library and Other Book Digitization Projects] (Search Engine Watch)
* [http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000192.html Yahoo! Search announcing Open Content Alliance]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
