To read, the user moves the Optacon camera across a line of print while interpreting the movements of the tactile forms with the index finger of the other hand. The Kurzweil Reading Machine is another computer device that libraries provide for visually impaired users. It scans a book, magazine, or other printed material and then reads it aloud using a synthesized voice. The Reading Edge Scanner can also convert printed text into speech. Some libraries are equipped with Braille printers, which allow blind and visually impaired patrons to make Braille copies of computer-generated material. For people with limited vision, some libraries provide computers with large keyboards, oversized keys, and monitors that automatically enlarge the letters that appear on the screen.Libraries are nearly as old as the written word. The formation of libraries required the support of political or religious leaders who recognized that historical records were necessary to document, protect, and promote their society's achievements. Libraries also could not have developed without readers-a core group of literate, educated people who had enough leisure time and motivation to use the new resource. The Sumerians, an ancient Mesopotamian civilization, collected written records of legal contracts, tax assessments, and bills of sale. They recorded these documents in cuneiform, a system of writing in which scribes cut wedges of varying size, shape, and depth into damp clay tablets. For permanent storage, the Sumerians then baked the tablets and placed them in central locations. These collections of cuneiform tablets functioned as libraries for use by community leaders, who generally were the only literate members of the society. Archaeological evidence shows that scores of cuneiform library collections existed more than 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamian urban centers. Some scholars believe that the first library with a major collection was built by Egyptian king Ramses II in the 1200s BC. Like other, later libraries in Egypt, it was housed in a temple and contained sacred literature. Like most other ancient libraries, Ramses's library was open only to members of the religious and political elite. The palace library of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, built in the city of Nineveh on the Tigris River in present-day Iraq in the 600s BC, offers the earliest detailed evidence of an ancient library's composition. Ashurbanipal's palace scribes produced the religious, literary, historical, legal, and business documents that made up the library's collection. They produced these documents as clay, wood, and sometimes wax tablets. Over time, the scribes developed a complex system to organize and classify the library's collection, using tablets of different shapes for different types of records. For example, they used four-sided tablets to record loan transactions and round tablets to record agricultural production. They then placed different types of documents into containers of different shapes and designated separate rooms for the storage of records concerning government, history, geography, law, taxes, astronomy, and other subjects. The scribes further refined their bibliographic system with organizational aids such as colored markings, colophons , and a subject classification scheme that used keywords in the text's first line. Estimates place the contents of Ashurbanipal's library at the time of his death at over 25,000 tablets written in several languages. Ancient Greece was the first known civilization to establish libraries for use by the popular classes as well as for members of the ruling elite. In the 500s BC Pisistratus, who ruled Athens, and Polycrates, the ruler of Sámos, both began constructing what could be considered public libraries. Most people still could not read, however, so in practice these libraries served only a small percentage of the total population. In addition to the government-owned libraries, wealthy Greeks and members of the professional class established private libraries, as well as specialized libraries in medicine, philosophy, and other disciplines. The philosopher Aristotle had an extensive library that scholars consulted, although historians have found no actual listing of the titles in his collection. Greek scholars Euripides, Plato, Thucydides, and Herodotus also owned significant personal libraries. The famous library of Alexandria, in Egypt, contained probably the largest collection in the ancient world-more than 400,000 items. King Ptolemy I founded the library before his death in 283 BC, but his son, Ptolemy II, was most responsible for expanding the library's collection. After acquiring remnants of the library amassed by Aristotle, Ptolemy II hired scribes and scholars to collect, authenticate, copy, and edit the works of all known Greek philosophers, dramatists, and poets, and to translate the sacred texts of other cultures into Greek. These texts were transcribed onto one side of papyrus scrolls made out of an easily harvested and readily available reed from the Nile River. Ptolemy II also expanded the building in which he housed his flourishing collections. To organize and inventory the library's thousands of scrolls, Alexandrian poet and scholar Callimachus developed the Pinakes, a 120-volume catalog of the library's holdings organized into at least ten main subject categories. Within these broad subject categories, Callimachus listed authors alphabetically by first name. Christians destroyed the library of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD, but by that time it had already demonstrated the economic and cultural value of amassing large research collections and forging a set of practices to organize and classify them. For hundreds of years the only library to rival the library of Alexandria in the size and scope of its collection was the library in the kingdom of Pergamum, in western Asia Minor . Archaeological research indicates that the Pergamum library contained as many as 160,000 scrolls, and like the Alexandrian library it had a catalog to simplify access to the collections. The library was founded by Attalus I, who reigned from 241 to 197 BC. His son, Eumenes II, who reigned from 197 to about 160 BC, significantly expanded the library. Attalus III, who became ruler of Pergamum in 138 BC, bequeathed his kingdom and its library to the Romans in 133 BC. According to legend, Alexandrian ruler Ptolemy II banned the export of papyrus from Egypt because he was jealous of the competing library in Pergamum. This ban forced scribes at the Pergamum library to use an alternative writing material, and they eventually began to transcribe many of their library's texts onto parchment, a material made from animal skins. Ironically, the parchment turned out to be more durable than papyrus, particularly when several sheets were sewn together to form books. Because of its increased durability, by 400 AD parchment had replaced papyrus throughout Europe as the principle writing material. DAncient Rome After conquering Macedonia in 146 BC, the Roman Empire acquired large collections of literature from the Greek libraries scattered throughout the region. Roman officials often carried this literature back to their private villas as spoils of war. As the Roman Empire grew in wealth and power, Romans considered it fashionable to surround themselves with books as a mark of social distinction. By 50 BC many wealthy Roman families had developed extensive private libraries. Although Roman emperor Julius Caesar commissioned a public library for Rome before he died in 44 BC, Roman libraries open to members of the public did not exist until 28 BC, when the emperor Augustus dedicated two collections attached to the Temple of Apollo. Like Ashurbanipal's library and the library of Alexandria, however, only a fraction of the local population was permitted access to Roman "public" libraries. Those who did have access were permitted to use the libraries primarily for official purposes. By the end of the 3rd century AD, Rome boasted nearly 30 quasi-public libraries, most attached to temples. These libraries divided their scroll collections by language into Greek and Latin sections, organizing them by subject and then alphabetically by author. Although housed in impressive buildings, the collections of Roman libraries were small in size and vulnerable to fire, insect damage, and other hazards. The Ulpian library was one of the greatest quasi-public libraries in Rome. Founded by Emperor Trajan in AD 114, the Ulpian library, like many Roman libraries, was divided into Greek and Latin sections. Roman emperor Hadrian also built a considerable private library for his palatial residence outside of Rome at Tivoli.
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