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Beware the Library Gods!

William J. Dean | From the Library Notes Newsletter, Saturday, June 1, 2002

In 1754, the year of the Library's founding, the trustees drew up a set of rules to be "strictly observed by the Librarian." "Reg. I" provided "That no Book whatsoever belonging to this Library, shall be detained in the hands of any Subscriber, longer than the space of One Month..." Throughout the 1800s the following circulation admonishments were affixed to our books:

The Trustees of the New York Society Library deem it their duty to request all persons interested in the institution, to exercise a little care in preventing the Books from getting injured when taken out of the Library. They are frequently blotted, scribbled in, and torn by children, and often soiled by servants bringing them to the Library without an envelope. It should also be remembered, that no person has a right to insert any comments, however correct, in the margin, or other parts of a Book, either with a pen or pencil. This practice induces others to disfigure the page with idle and unnecessary remarks.

The Library's present "Terms and Rules" are not nearly as charming. Presumably written by a committee of lawyers, they read like tax regulations. But Rule C(8)(b) has character: "No one shall conduct himself in a manner that is disturbing, rude or unpleasant to another reader or to a member of the library staff."

As I learned from reading Lionel Casson's delightful and informative recent book, Libraries in the Ancient World (published by Yale University Press), our rules seem humane compared to those of King Ashurbanipal, who ruled Assyria from 668 to 627 b.c. His library, which he compiled by sending scribes on book searches throughout ancient Mesopotamia, is considered to be the earliest in Western history. If you planned to steal a tablet (remember, we are in the pre-book era) from the king's library, you did so at peril to your life. "He who carries it off, may Adad and Shala carry him off!" Or, "May Nabu decree his destruction." Some rules reward good behavior. "The scholar who does not steal the document and replaces it in its holder, may Ishtar regard him with joy." But for those maltreating a tablet, the consequences are terrible:

He who breaks this tablet or puts it in water or rubs it until you cannot recognize it [and] cannot make it be understood, may Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Adad and Ishtar, Bel Nergal, Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela, Ishtar of Bit Kidmurri, the gods of heaven and earth and the gods of Assyria, may all these curse him with a curse which cannot be relieved, terrible and merciless, as long as he lives, may they let his name, his seed, be carried off from the land, may they put his flesh in a dog's mouth!

As future generations of trustees review and revise the Library's rules, I hope they will not find it necessary to emulate the Assyrian model.

William Dean
Chairman, Board of Trustees