Book excerpt: Which are the oldest public libraries in the world? In what years were the first books printed in French, Thai, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish? What are the oldest extant texts written in Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish? When was the first major computer database used in libraries? What are the titles of the largest, smallest or most expensive books ever published? Where is the world's busiest public library? Which three books were the first to contain photographs? In its updated and expanded third edition, this reference work provides hundreds of fascinating facts about libraries, books, periodicals, reference databases, specialty archives, bookstores, catalogs, technology, information science organizations and library buildings.