The Beinecke Library, Thomas Fisher Library, Vatican Library, Miguel de Benavides Library… all house thousands of rare books.
Many countries have special libraries that store rare documents. These institutions have been established for a long time, with some located in top universities worldwide such as Yale, Toronto, and Santo Tomas. The image shows an overview of the interior of the Beinecke Library, USA. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The Beinecke Library (in Connecticut, USA) is situated on the Yale University campus. It is one of the libraries that houses the most valuable books in the world. Fifteen blocks of marble run across the face of the building, five blocks run vertically, and ten blocks run deep into it. The structure has a ratio of 3:1:2. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The Beinecke Library houses over one million books, manuscript pages, and tens of thousands of papyrus, photographs, maps, posters, paintings, and art objects, as well as a rich collection of audiovisual materials. The main collections are divided into six categories: Pre-1500, Early Modern (1500 to 1800), Modern (Post-1800), American Literature, German Literature, and Documents on the American West. The library has six floors from floor to ceiling. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The library serves as a repository of original academic documents in various fields: from the history of music and painting to political, social, and civilizational history, Europe, the Middle Ages, America, the American West, and Transatlantic modernism… (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
A Gutenberg Bible is carefully protected from sunlight at the Beinecke Library. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The Thomas Fisher Library, located at the University of Toronto (Canada), is home to many rare original documents about North America. It has been managed by the Rare Books and Special Collections department established in 1955. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The library is open to the public for document viewing. Some rare items are carefully protected in glass cases and have dedicated exhibition rooms. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
Librarian Pearce Carefoote of the Thomas Fisher Library holds a Bible identified as dating back to the Middle Ages. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
This library once faced the risk of over 750,000 books being moldy due to prolonged moisture accumulation. Therefore, the management quickly organized personnel to renovate the insulation and cooling system to ensure the books are always kept in optimal preservation conditions. (Photo: Thomas Fisher Library).
The Vatican Library officially opened in 1475 under Pope Sixtus IV. Subsequently, the Vatican continued to collect various types of documents and books. In 1587, it was decided to move the library to a larger space to better accommodate the growing collection. The Vatican Library holds nearly 1.6 million printed books, including over 8,000 incunabula (books printed before 1500). (Photo: Vatican Library).
The Vatican Library actively sought technology partners to bring its modern printed book catalog online in 1985. By the early 2000s, the library began uploading images online of its complete book and manuscript collection. (Photo: NPR).
Digitization efforts continue to this day. It is expected that by 2029, the books and manuscripts stored will be accessible on digital platforms. (Photo: The Global News).
The Miguel de Benavides Library is located at the University of Santo Tomas and houses historical cultural documents of the Philippines. Some rare materials are recognized as national cultural treasures. (Photo: UST Heritage).
There are documents written in the ancient language of the Philippines being preserved at the Benavides Library. (Photo: UST Heritage).
Another branch of the Benavides Library, called Antonio Vivencio del Rosario, holds a collection of 30,000 books predating 1500. (Photo: UST Heritage).
