-
600
Illuminated Manuscripts
“Around 600 AD, beautiful hand-sketched illustrations began appearing on parchment. These colorful, meticulously drawn pictures were called "illuminated manuscripts" and were wonderful to behold. They helped depict the story or enforce the importance of the message on the parchment,” (Burnell, C., 2019). This contributed to the development of libraries because this is essentially the first picture book. -
The Franklin Library
Benjamin Franklin started the first public library in 1790. At first, only members of the Congregational Church could use it, but eventually it was accessible to all inhabitants of the town. This contributes to the development of libraries since it was the very first public library. -
American Library Association
The founding of the American Library Association. 90 men and 13 women gathered as an association of library and library education. -
First class in library economy offered at Columbia College
Melvil Dewey’s School of Library Economy began with its first class on January 5, 1887. This program was dedicated to the library profession and started with 20 students. This event contributes to the development of librarianship because this is the first graduate program where students were learning how to become librarians as a profession. -
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn offers its first class in cataloging followed by library economy courses.
Pratt "began offering organized training classes in library economy and cataloging. Margaret Healy directed the library and its new courses in the basement of Main Building. Mary Wright Plummer, a graduate of Melvil Dewey’s Columbia Library School class of 1888, came to Pratt to develop ‘skilled assistants,’” (Information, P. I. S. of) This contributes to the development of libraries because it introduced the need for more education on different disciplines of LIS, such as cataloging. -
Melvil Dewey suggests a librarian's college
Melvil Dewey suggests a “librarians’ college” which would be attached to a normal school with a considerable library. When he was 21, he invented the Dewey Decimal Classification. Dewey created the DDC which is the most widely used way to organize library collections. -
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh establishes Training School for Children’s Librarians; Western Reserve proposes library school.
The Training School for Children’s Librarians was established at the Carnegie Library School. This contributed to the development of the library as it opened up a new discipline for library patrons, children. -
Library School faculty from various schools met for the first time at Asheville, NC, American Library Association Convention (ALA).
“The first recorded gathering of staff members from American library schools took plae late in the afternoon of Friday, May 23, 1907, at the Ashville, N.C. annual conference of the American Library Association,” (Davis, D. G. (2005). This contributed to library and information science because of the creation of ALA. -
The development of the Library Punched Cards
Library punched cards were desirable to benefit documentation of library materials. They improved the ability to index scientific and technical information and better user service. The paper presents a history of the use of punched cards in US libraries. -
The first eBook
In 1971, Michael S. Hart launched Project Gutenberg and digitized the U.S. Declaration of Independence, becoming the first eBook in the world. This contributed to the development of libraries because this new system would allow access to more books and a wider audience of readers.