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Jan 1, 1440
The Printing Press
In 1440 when Johannes Gutenburg completed the printing press, he changed the way books would be looked at forever. Instead of worring about preserving books they could now be enjoyed and read for pleasure of knowledge. -
Personal Libraries of the New World
During the 1700's when many wealthy statesmen, such as Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were imigrating to the New World they would continue to collect books and build impressive personal libraries since there were no official libraries in the New World. -
The Redwood Library
In 1747 46 wealthy Quakers pulled there money and resources to help build the Redwood Library, and institution to "propagate virtue, knowledge, and useful learning." The library is still in use today and has managed to retain 90% of the original collection. -
The Boston Public Library
In 1854 Boston opened the first modern public library. This was a large leap for libraries because this was the first library open to working men and young childeren and women. The Boston Public Library helped to make knowledge accessable to everyone. -
The Dewey Decimal System
In 1876 Melvil Dewey created the Dewey Decimal System as a way of organizing books by common subject. In 1885 Dewey was hired as the head librarian at Colombia University to help intigrate his new classification system. -
The Depression
Due to the Great Depression libraries across the country had to cut budgets although library use was rising. A New Deal bill gave federal money to help rebuild and restock libraries across the nation. -
Ancient Discovery
In 1964 excavation of the ancient city of Ebla began. During excavation over 15,000 tablets were found with writings ranging from politics to religion to neighboring languages. -
Library Services and Constitution Act
On February 11, 1964 president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Library Services and Constitution Act which allowed more federal aid for public library construction and school library improvments. -
The World Wide Web
In the 1990's libraries and schools across the country connected to the interent. Little did they know then how large of an impact this would have on libraries. Many libraries now have gone digital with many online resources such as the destiney catalog and ebooks. -
Library Catologing
In 814 when the Catholic Church was in charge of scripture, Monasteries were established for Monks to copy Christian texts, There came a point where there were so many scriptures the first ideas of a library catologing system were proposed.
