Famous libraries

Some of the greatest libraries in the world are research libraries. The most famous ones include The Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library in New York City, the Russian National Library in St Petersburg, the British Library in London, Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C..

* Egypt's Library of Alexandria (founded in 3rd century BC) and modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
* Islamic Spain's library of Cordoba, founded in 9th century.
* Ambrosian Library in Milan opened to the public, December 8, 1609.
* Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, founded between 669-631 BC.
* Baghdad's House of Wisdom, founded in 8th century AD.
* Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) in Paris, 1720.
* Boston Public Library in Boston, 1826.
* Bodleian Library at University of Oxford 1602, books collection begin around 1252.
* British Library in London created in 1973 by the British Library Act of 1972 (Originally part of the British Museum founded 1753).
* British Library of Political and Economic Science in London, 1896.
* Butler Library at Columbia University, 1934
* Cambridge University Library at University of Cambridge, 1931.
* Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, 1895.
* Carolina Rediviva at Uppsala University, 1841
* Tripoli's Dar il-'ilm, destroyed in 1109.
* Dutch Royal Library in The Hague, 1798
* Egypt's library of Cairo, founded in 10th century.
* The European Library, 2004
* Firestone Library at Princeton University, 1948
* Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (largest in the Southern Hemisphere), 1908
* Franklin Public Library in Franklin, Massachusetts (the first public library in the U.S.; original books donated by Benjamin Franklin in 1731)
* Free Library of Philadelphia in Philadelphia established February 18, 1891.
* Garrison Library in Gibraltar, 1793.
* Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, 1924.
* Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the Canada-US border.
* House of Commons Library, Westminster, London. Established 1818.
* ITU Mustafa Inan Library. Established 1795. The largest collection on technical (science and engineering) materials in Turkey.
* Jagiellonian Library at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, 1364.
* Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia founded 1802.
* John Rylands Library in Manchester 1972.
* Leiden University Library at Leiden University in Leiden began at 1575 with confiscated monastery books. Officially open in October 31, 1587.
* Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 1800.
* Library of Sir Thomas Browne, 1711
* Mitchell Library in Glasgow (Europe's largest public reference library)
* Multnomah County Library in Oregon, largest public library west of the Mississippi River, 1864.
* National Library of Belarus in Minsk, 2006.
* National Library of Australia in Canberra, Australia
* National Library of Iran, 1937.
* National Library of Ireland in Dublin, 1877.
* National library of Israel (formerly: Jewish National and University Library) in Jerusalem, Israel, 1892.
* National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, 1925.
* National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, 1907.
* New York Public Library in New York
* Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
* Powell Library at UCLA, part of the UCLA Library.
* Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, one of the largest repositories of books in the world.
* Royal Library in Copenhagen, 1793.
* Russian State Library in Moscow, 1862.
* Sassanid's ancient Library of Gondishapur around 489.
* Seattle Central Library
* Staatsbibliothek in Berlin
* State Library of New South Wales in Sydney
* State Library of Victoria in Melbourne
* Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, 1931.
* St. Marys Church, Reigate, Surrey houses the first public lending library in England. Opened 14 March 1701.
* Trinity College Library, in Trinity College, Dublin, the largest library in Ireland. Since 1592.
* The St. Phillips Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in Charleston, South Carolina, was the first public lending library in the American Colonies. See also Benjamin Franklin's free public library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* Vatican Library in Vatican City, 1448 (but existed before).
* Wellcome Library in London
* Widener Library at Harvard University (Harvard University Library including all branches has the largest academic collection overall.)

Some libraries devoted to a single subject:

* Chess libraries
* Esperanto libraries
* Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the world's largest genealogy library.

For more extensive lists, see

* List of libraries that are the subject of a Wikipedia article
* List of libraries
* List of national libraries