A whimsical virtual tour of ancient libraries in the form of postcards to teacher-librarians.

1. Tim
Gauntley’s
Virtual*
Library
Tour
Presented to Simcoe
County District School
Board 2010
*All but one have been
destroyed by biblioclasts!
For more information on Ancient libraries go to
timgauntley.blogspot.com

2. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal (Nineveh)

3. From Tim’s
Library Tour, 2010
The Library of Ashurbanipal
(Nineveh)
Teacher-Librarians
• 7rd century BC – 605 CE
• 22,000+ fired clay tablets SCDSB, Ontario
(stylus)
• multiliterate royal
collection of art, records,
oral and written literature
• first organization
principles for retrieval
• Epic of Gilgamesh

4. The Library at Alexandria (Egypt)

5. From Tim’s
Library Tour, 2010
The Library of Alexandria
• 3rd century BC – 391 CE
• part of the Musaeum Teacher-Librarians
(temple of the Muses)
• 1,000,000 (?) papyrus SCDSB, Ontario
scrolls
• research centre for
scholars
• had gardens, walkways,
meeting rooms,
• “The place of the cure of
the soul”

6. The Ulpian Library of Trajan (Rome)

7. From Tim’s
Library Tour, 2010
The Ulpian Library of Rome
(Trajan)
• 100 – 450 CE Teacher-Librarians
• divided into adjoining
libraries (Greek and Latin) SCDSB, Ontario
of papyrus scrolls: one
either side of Trajan’s
column
• beginning of a public
library and reading room
with little censorship or
control
• a sumptious public space

8. The House of Wisdom (Bagdad)

9. From Tim’s
Library Tour, 2010
The House of Wisdom
(Bagdad)
• 9th -13th century Teacher-Librarians
• established to preserve
and create knowledge SCDSB, Ontario
• Improved paper making
from Chinese with linen
books
• welcomed Greek and latin
scholars into a centre of
intellectual development
• included an observatory

10. The Abbey Library of St Gall (Switzerland)

11. From Tim’s
Library Tour, 2010
Abbey Library of St. Gall
• 719- present
• access first limited to
scholars Contains 2,100 Teacher-Librarians
manuscripts (codices/
parchment/books) from the SCDSB, Ontario
8th to 15th centuries, 1,650
incunabula (those printed
before 1500) in addition to
160,000 volumes
• now pre-1000 manuscripts
available in digital library
at http://www.e-
codices.unifr.ch/en

12. Thank
You For
Joining
Tim’s
Tours