LIBRARY IS.....

History:
      History is the myth agreed upon, and so the history of libraries is no different.  Traditionally, libraries have been thought of as places for books.  This was not always true, nor will it be so in the future.  The codex is just a vessel of and for information - somewhere at the beginning of a long line of vessels.  So what than are libraries?  Though there are as many views to this question as there are missing library copies of ISBN
I will start here:
      Libraries began when humans began storing information outside of their imagination.  One could even go as far as saying that communication was the original library.  The first works of art like the  
caves in France could be the first library.  Gilgamesh could be the first library.  Why is this?  Because the sharing of knowledge is the storing of knowledge.  How about this even:  The first library was created when human beings were first able to store, retrieve, and make use of memory.  The imagination perhaps the first librarian. 
      The first actual physical libraries that stored a society's shared knowledge existed five thousand years ago in Summeria.  Brought to us by the fine folks who first brought us writing - as far as we know.  From clay tablets to papyrus to animal skins to paper, libraries through out the ages have stored and given access to a community's collective knowledge. 
       Now libraries are struggling to define themselves within the new world of emmense technological change.  A revolution this large and culture-changing hasn't happened since Gutenberg fired up his printing press - and before that, since the invention of writing.  And the questions don't stop at how is a library to handle audio, visual, and other multi-media formats...How about the question of whether the book has a future?  How about the question of whether the library, as we know it, have a future?  I would say: Of course it does, but it sure as hell aint gonna be the same, ya hear?

There are many books that are either entirely on the history of libraries and information, or have good sections on the subject - here a couple I've come across:

Avatars of the Word: From Papyrus to Cyberspace by James J. O'Donnell
A wonderful book, written in a style "deliberately associative and informal"(quoted from the Preface; pg.x)
The Author has also set up a web page for the curious reader, which is worth checking out.
The Story of Libraries: From the Invention of Writing to The Computer Age by Fred Lerner
The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin