For general readers, Lerner, who has degrees in history and library science from Columbia U., provides a brief and selective history of libraries and how people have collected and organized records of the human experience. He traces the evolution of libraries, the role they played in society from the invention of writing to today, and how they were an aspect of the culture in which they operated. He describes libraries in ancient Egypt, Han-dynasty China, the ancient Western Classical world, the Baghdad of Harun-al-Rashid, and medieval and Renaissance Europe, as well as colonial America, the Library of Congress, university libraries, today's large public library systems, librarianship, and information management. This edition has been updated to incorporate new technology. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)