Library World Records

Former librarian and information consultant Godfrey Oswald is also the creator of "The Info Connect LIS Directory," the largest available alphabetical directory on the Internet for librarians. He lives in London, England.

Which are the oldest public libraries in the world? In what years were the first books printed in French, Thai, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish? What are the oldest extant texts written in Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish? When was the first major computer database used in libraries? What are the titles of the largest, smallest or most expensive books ever published? Where in the world is the world's busiest public library? Which three books were the first to contain photographs? In its updated and expanded third edition, this reference work provides hundreds of fascinating facts about libraries, books, periodicals, reference databases, specialty archives, bookstores, catalogs, technology, information science organizations and library buildings.

The amount of information gathered here is astounding"--Emerald Journal; "informative entriesstrongly recommended"--Dawn; "fascinating facts and figures"--IPMatters; "features all the facts that one could possibly need or want to know about librariesuseful"--Reference Reviews; "a book to dip intosurprising facts for everyonegood" --World Patent Information.. Reviews of previous editions: "intriguingeasy, enjoyable browsing"--Library Journal; "this ready-reference work is fun to browsethis is an entertaining book that gathers unique information in one volumethis book should surely whet your intellectual appetitea wide variety of interesting