story of libraries

Bismillah..

Yesterday, I had the chance to browse aut main library and found this book entitled: The story of libraries: from the invention of writing to the computer age, written by Lerner (2002).

The best part about this book is chapter 5 where the author describes library development during islamic world. I can proudly point out that libraries actually began to flourish in its truly sense during islamic civilization. The so-called 'public libraries' actually began during islamic world too.. when catalog was created, loan services was made available, even to anybody (rich or poor), copies of books were made available to almost all public libraries in the Muslim world. 'Librarians' were hired to make copies of books and to take care the collection. Classification of books was simple but it was there.

Don't you feel proud of these!!! unfortunately..most of our heritage were destroyed during the Mongol invasion. And during the end of Islamic civilization.. muslim were weak.. they are indulged so much with the worldy affairs that they stress less on our roots.. and love for knowledge..

Some of our heritage were kept in the western countries. Gradually... with the emergance of islamic revivalism in almost all muslims countries, many libraries tried to get back our heritage... why do we need to have them... to preserve them so that our future generation could access them, study, research and reproduce islamic heritage...