From the History of Printing
The earliest books were written on tablets of wood or pieces of bark. In Greece and Rome, the tablets of wood were covered with wax, and writing was impressed upon them with a small stick called “stylus”. In Assyria and Babylonia clay tablets were used for writing and the words were drawn with a piece of wood. After baking, the tablets were kept on shelves, just like books are kept today. The earliest books of the ancient world were written on papyrus and skins of young animals. These books took the form of a long strip, rolled from one cylinder to another. These writings were known to the Romans as volumes from which comes the word volume. Though paper has been known in China since the first century, the secret of papermaking came to Europe much later.
By the time of the Middle Ages all books were handwriting and often beautifully decorated. But very few people could read them. The invention of printing was a really great event in history. The first people to invent printing were the Chinese. In Europe the best-known inventor of printing is Johann Gutenberg from Germany. The first printing press in Russia was built by Ivan Fedorov in Moscow in 1564. Printing spread quickly over Europe and by the end of the 15th century there were more than 200 presses.
Eventually there were more and more people in Europe who could read and they wanted more and more books. That led to opening more libraries. Early libraries were used only by scientists and were few. Modern libraries do their best to help people get information as quickly as possible. They use computers and electronic catalogues. Now most countries have their own national libraries.
Many old university libraries have rich collections of books: Oxford and Cambridge in England, Harvard and Yale in the United States, Moscow State University in Russia. Among the great libraries of the world we can name the British Museum Library (The British Library) in London, the Library of Congress in the United States, the Beijing Library in China, and the State Public Library in Moscow. The State Public Library in Moscow was founded in 1862 and has unique collections of books.