Tablet to Tablet: Exhibit Coming to the Mandeville Branch of the St. Tammany Parish Library

In November the Mandeville Branch will be hosting a fascinating exhibit on the history of the book:  "Reading the World: Tablet to Tablet."  The written word has played an important role in shaping history and culture, and the exhibit will highlight the role of civilizations from around the world  in the evolution of the "book" from the stone tablet to the tablet computer.

Over the next month, look for blog posts highlighting materials at the St. Tammany Parish Library that provide more information about topics from the exhibit. We hope that you will be able to visit the branch to learn more about how people have learned, recorded, and communicated.

The branch will also have an activity table with crafts and activity sheets for kids. Test your knowledge by taking our History of Writing Quiz! Each week there will also be a Book in a Jar—guess the title of the book and you could win a prize!

We are getting ready for the exhibit by learning more about the history of the book.  Here's a handy timeline tracing the history of the written word from 2500 BC to the modern ebook. The British Museum also has an excellent piece on the history of writing, featuring images of items from the museum.

And don't forget to check out the library's collection, opens a new window! The display case in the front of the branch will highlight titles from important eras in the evolution of the written word. We are currently reading the following books:

The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time

The Book: The Life Story of a Technology

The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs & Pictograms