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A universal library is a library which contains all existing, possible, or useful information or knowledge.This ideal, although unrealizable, has influenced and continues to influence librarians and others.
History The Library of Alexandria is generally regarded as the first library approaching universality, although this idea may be more mythical than real. The universal library in fiction Science fiction has used the device of a library which is universal in the sense that it not only contains all existing written works, but all possible written works. This idea appeared in Kurd Lasswitz's 1901 story The Universal Library and Borges's essay The Total Library before its more famous expression in Borges's story The Library of Babel. Such a library, of course, would be as useless as it is complete. It is a pessimistic opinion that the Internet already approaches this state. See also | ||||||||
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