Archive for November 2017

Long before the Kindle or the iPad, eBooks were envisioned by a man named Robert Brown.  In his 1930 manifesto, he suggested: “The written word hasn’t kept up with the age. The movies have outmaneuvered it. We have the talkies, but as yet no Readies.” He advocated for a reading machine that would allow him to…

This is the last week to come see the "Reading the World: Tablet to Tablet" exhibit at the Mandeville Branch. If you haven't had a chance to stop by and view the displays, we hope that you will take some time this week to visit. After seeing the exhibit, if you still want to learn…

This week we've been exploring the history of children's books. Books designed for children's enjoyment—and not just as a tool of instruction or for moral education—date back to the late 1600s. But the fairy tale is even older!  Fairy tales originated as oral folktales, passed down from generation to generation through word of mouth, and they…

We all know that Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. However, he wasn't the first to print a book. The history of printing is one of many small inventions that spanned centuries and nations. Around 3500 BCE ancient Mesopotamians used carved cylinder pieces to stamp clay tablets, the Chinese invented woodblock printing before 220 CE, and…

The codex is considered the first book form—pages bound together and placed between two thicker pieces of material—and the earliest example appears in the historical record in the first century CE. Codices had many advantages over the scroll: they were portable, readers could easily locate a specific section of the text, and they could contain longer…

The "Reading the World: Tablet to Tablet" exhibit has sparked our interested in cave art this week at the Mandeville Branch. While touring the exhibit, don't forget to stop by the activity table at the front of the branch where you can create your own cave art! Even before the stone tablets of Sumeria, civilizations…