Similarities and Differences Between the Alexandria Library and Current Academic Libraries

After doing my research on the ancient Alexandria Library in Egypt, I was able to see several similarities and differences between the library and current academic libraries.

One similarity that I noticed was that the Alexandria Library was used as a major center of scholarship and research institution. Current academic libraries are used by students and faculty for their researching needs, as well as find information to enhance their learning.

Another similarity was that the Alexandria Library had acquisitions and cataloging departments, in which they acquired numerous scrolls and cataloged them into a specific order. Academic libraries also have these kind of departments where they acquire hundreds of books (like the Alexandria Library) and catalog them to the Library of Congress System. One difference related to this was that all visitors had to surrender their books and scrolls and the employees made copies of them. With today's technology, visitors don't have to hand over their personal materials, but can borrow books. People who visit today's academic libraries can make copies of information on copy machines, request information through Inter Library Loan (ILL) or have it sent by email.

The setup of current academic libraries is similar to the setup of the Alexandria Library. The Alexandria Library had rooms for dining, lecture halls and meeting rooms. Many of today's academic libraries have the same layout, but most of the dining areas are coffee shops. The lecture halls are used for classes and meeting rooms are designed for students and/or faculty to meet.

The Alexandria Library also had a "daughter" library, which was a library at another location. Some of our current academic libraries have "daughter" libraries if they have more than one campus and/or speciality. For example, at USC's campus, there is the law library, business library, music library and the South Caroliniana Library for archives, as well as the Thomas Cooper Library.

Another difference between the Alexandria Library and current academic libraries is that much of the information that the Alexandria Library had was on scrolls and something similar to books. Now, information can be found in books, journals, on the Internet, electronic journals, e-books and other technologies.