You can find the concept of the library way back in human history, almost three millennia ago. So when you think about it, libraries are older than books.
Younger, too... the buildings may last, but the books themselves can have a limited shelf life. And our ideas about what libraries should look like and contain change over time, too.
We get a lesson in all of this from Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen.
Together they wrote the book The Library: A Fragile History. From cuneiform tablets to beanbag chairs in children's rooms, we'll sample the history.