Library World Records is a fascinating reference book first published in 2004 after intensive research work began on the book back in 2002. The book was further extensively updated in a second edition in December 2009. Library World Records provides hundreds of intriguing and comprehensive facts about ancient and modern books, manuscripts and libraries around the world.

15 years has passed since I first began research work on the reference book, and I am pleased to say that a much bigger brand new 3rd edition of Library World Records is now available. The new edition was published on the 30th of September 2017.

It soon becomes obvious from the theme of this book, Library World Records has been indeed called the Guinness Book of World Records specifically on books, manuscripts, librarians and libraries worldwide.

Although I began the writing the first edition in 2002, Library World Records first existed as a website between 1996 and 2001. At that time I never imagined my curiosity about library and book superlatives around the world would morph into a real reference book version. 20 years ago, back in summer 1997, Moira Duncan, a senior editor of the famous British library journal Managing Information did a review of Library World Records when it existed only as a website. You can find the review in the July/August 1997 issue, Vol 4 Number 6 issue. But the link below shows a duplicate of the review taken from the Way-Back-Machine database search for the 1997 issue of Managing Information, which back then was available in print and online.
1997 Review of Library World Records.

Library World Records provides answers to such questions as:

• Which universities in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas have the largest libraries?
• What is the name of oldest public libraries in all of the different continents of the world?
• In what year was the very first CD-ROM book released?
• What are the names of the oldest texts written in Greek, Celtic and Latin?
• What are the top fifty world's most expensive books and manuscripts ever auctioned at either Sotheby’s or Christie’s?
• In what years were the very first books printed in French, Hausa, Thai, Japanese, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, English, Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish published?
• What are the name of the oldest extant texts or inscriptions written in Chinese, Hindi, English, German, Sanskrit, Mongolian and Malay?
• When was the first major computer database used in libraries?
• What are the titles of the largest, heaviest, smallest and most expensive books ever published?
• Where in the world are the world’s five busiest public libraries?
Who was the very first author to use a typewriter and in what year did it happen?
• Which famous horror fiction writer, prime ministers and movie stars also worked in libraries?
• What is the name of the very first Sub-Saharan African university library founded in the 15th century?
• What are the titles of the largest journals and magazines in world?
• What are the top five world most widely read magazines and newspapers around the world?
• By virtue of having the oldest and the first writing systems in the world, which top 10 nations around the world were the first to write books?
• Which libraries have the most expensive budgets in the world?
• Which 200 major movies were filmed in libraries?
• How many libraries are there in Russia, the U.K., Germany, France, the U.S., Japan and Egypt?
• Which libraries in Europe and the U.S. have the oldest copies of the Gutenberg Bible?
• Which libraries in Europe and the U.S. have the oldest copies of the the Bible before 500 AD?
• When were the first ten university libraries in Asia and the Middle East founded?
• Where can we find the oldest extant library building in the world?
• Which Germanic tribes that migrated to England France, Russia and Spain, after the end of the Roman Empire wrote the earliest Runic inscriptions in Europe, ignoring the Latin alphabet of the Romans?
• What is the name of the first major University library in Europe to open 24 hours a day?
• Even though much of Africa had a strong oral tradition, what is the name of the first major books to be written in Africa, in an African language, south of the Sahara Desert, using the Roman alphabet?
• Which countries publish the largest annual number of books in the world?
• What are the names of the first three famous published books in the world to contain photographs?
• What is the name of the very first book to use page numbers?
• Where in the world are the tallest bookstores and library buildings?
• What is the name of the most expensive book theft in the world?
• What famous book caused its author to be burned at stake for being a heretic?
• Which famous ruler of England was barred from entering England's most famous library and why?
• Where in Asia can the largest stone inscriptions be found?
• Which library in the world was the first to illuminate the library with electric bulbs?
• What is the name of the list of books that were banned by the Vatican for hundreds of years?
• What are the names of the world's oldest surviving papyrus, vellum, parchment and paper manuscripts?
• Which top libraries around the world have more than 500 staff members?
• What is the name of the very first printed book in the world to have page numbers?
• What is the title of the book that became part of the epensive book project?
• What are the names of the first books and illuminated manuscripts to be published in colour?
• What are the names of the largest art libraries, history databases, engineering libraries, and geography databases?
• What are the names of the 200 largest libraries in the world?
• Finally.... What are the names of the 100 oldest libraries in the world?

All these these inquisitive questions are just a few samples of over 600 questions, whose answers can be found in third edition of Library World Records, the first specific reference book of its kind to be published in the world, covering a wide range of library and book superlatives, and in paperback format.

With more than 410 photographs from around the world showcasing ancient and modern libraries, papyrus, parchment and velum manuscripts, clay and stone inscriptions, incunabula, library buildings and famous librarians etc, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions of Library World Records offers readers amazing facts and figures about libraries around the world, and the three important things we normally find in them: books, periodicals and databases. The new book deals with superlatives and comparative information such as the first, the largest, the oldest, the smallest, most expensive, and other miscellanea in several categories covering a period of more than 5000 years.

The listed hundreds of facts above also vividly illustrate the wonder and rich evolution of books and libraries from crude and simple to sophisticated, complex and efficient.