17th and 18th centuries
The 17th and 18th centuries include what is known as a golden age of libraries;[28] during this some of the more important libraries were founded in Europe, such as the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the British Museum Library in London, the Mazarine Library and the Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve in Paris, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the National Central Library in Florence, the Prussian State Library in Berlin, the Zaluski Library in Warsaw and the M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library of St Petersburg.[29] The 18th century is considered to be an advancement to all cultural developments in library history, and it is at this time that we see the beginning of the functional library. In France, the French Revolution saw the confiscation in 1789 of church libraries and rich nobles' private libraries, and their collections became state property. The confiscated stock became part of a new national library – the Bibliotheque Nationale. Two famous librarians, Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon and Joseph Van Praet, selected and identified over 300,000 books and manuscripts that became the property of the people in the Bibliotheque Nationale.[30] During the French Revolution, librarians were solely responsible for the bibliographic planning of the nation. Out of this came the implementation of the concept of library service – the democratic extension of library services to the general public regardless of wealth or education. The Bodleian Library ( /?b?dli?n/ or /b?d?lin/), the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libra
ies in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or simply "the Bod", under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom[1][2] and under Irish Law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland.[3] The Bodleian operates principally as a reference library and in general documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. All Oxford colleges have their own libraries, which in a number of cases were established well before the foundation of the Bodleian. Historically, the college libraries were entirely independent of the Bodleian. However, recent years have seen them brought together for certain purposes under the umbrella of what was formerly known as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), and now as the Bodleian Libraries, of which the Bodleian is just one. The Austrian National Library (German: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, abbreviated "ONB" and formerly Hof-Bibliothek) is the largest library in Austria with 7.4 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collections have been relocated within the baroque structure of the Palais Mollard-Clary. Founded by the Habsburgs, the library was originally called the 'Hof-Bibliothek' ("Imperial Library"); the change to the current name occurred in 1920.[1] The library complex includes four museums, as well as multiple special collections and archives.