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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''
Step into this library quietly, with reverence. Don't raise your voice, don't run. And for god's sake, no smoking.
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Few are the mortals who are allowed to enter, let alone read the tomes here. Have a question? There's a book here to answer it. [[Gotta Catch Them All|Need to learn about a collection of MacGuffins]]? You'll find those half-way down [[Four Is Death|shelf four.]] [[Genre Savvy|Wish to be privy]] [[Medium Awareness|to the secrets]] [[Mind Screw|of the innermost universe]]? You may have to ask for assistance.
This is not your typical local library. Inside this library, you can find the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]], [[Tomes of Prophecy and Fate]] and the [[Great Big Book of Everything]] if you know where to search... which is quite unlikely, given that every book ever printed (and [[Blank Book|some that aren't]]) sits on its dust-coated labyrinthine shelves in its cavernous, dimly lit rooms, and its organisational structure predates the Dewey decimal system by about 3 millennia. Sadly, even containing the knowledge of the whole universe, it seems to be lacking any sort of [[Hot Librarian]]. This place attracts the [[Scary Librarian|spookier librarians]].<ref>[[Discworld|Ook]]</ref>
And trust us... you don't want to get Cheeto dust on these pages. [[Tempting Fate|You just don't.]]
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{{examples}}
== General ==
* The Library of Alexandria sometimes gets this treatment in fiction. It held so much ancient knowledge that some say that if it had not burned down and been lost forever, technology would be significantly more advanced today. At least, we'd know the content of many more classical works.
** If the work of [[wikipedia:Hero of Alexandria|Hero of Alexandria]], who thought up the steam engine, were there, that is sure.
** How advanced might the world be had the Library not burned down? The ''Nina'', ''Pinta'', and ''Santa Maria'' might have been bound for ''the Moon''.
== Anime and Manga ==
* The Infinity Library of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', has all the publications and data of every world, and has been described as containing the memories of the universe. It's so huge that nobody has catalogued even a small fraction of it, and people wanting to use it for research often form ''multi-week expeditions'' to do so. These are people who can use search magic to speed things up and read several books at once, mind you.
** There's a common bit of fanon that suggests that the Infinity Library is actually connected to one or more of the other entries on this list. When reading Nanoha fanfics ([[Sturgeon's Law|the good ones, at least]]), any scene involving Yuuno and the Library has about a one-in-four chance of featuring a cameo appearance by an oddly intelligent <s> monkey</s> [[Discworld|orangutan]].
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has Library Island, a city-sized underground library so massive that Mahora actually has a school club dedicated to exploring it, with standard club equipment consisting of ''rock climbing gear''. It's known to contain books that make the holder more intelligent, golems, dragons, lakes, ''waterfalls''<ref>that don't cause any water damage to the books behind them!</ref> the roots of [[The World Tree]], and lots of booby traps. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090220123746/http://www.mangafox.com/page/manga/read/71/mahou_sensei_negima/chapter.11056/page.14
* The Library of Spirits ("Fantasy Library") in the ''[[Read or Die
** ''[[
* The Great Library in ''[[Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito]]'' consists of books that ''contain'' every single world of the multiverse down to the smallest detail. And it also comes with a [[Hot Librarian]] ({{spoiler|actually, there are even two of them}}) included.
* The [[MacGuffin]] of ''[[Outlaw Star]]'', the Galactic Leyline is revealed in the last episode to be a library left behind by the [[Precursors]]; so far advanced beyond mortal comprehension that it's described as a "Machine god". [[Mad Scientist]] Gwen Khan's entire motivation for seeking out the Leyline was to become one with the unlimited data compiled within it.
* Although it isn't actually a library ''per se'', the Claire Bible from ''[[Slayers]]'' is very similar to this. The complete manuscript is a straight example (it's stored on an infinite number of stelae in an alternate dimension, so good luck finding what you want if the librarian doesn't want to help you), but the original is more of a telepathic fountain of knowledge.
* In ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', {{spoiler|the "inside" of the Command Cluster is an entire library ''city''.}}
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', The Central Library. At least, before it burned down.
==
* ''[[
* The Library of Dream in ''[[
** [[Word of God]] has it that it has an annex that contains everything that actually was written, too. We just never see it because it's so tiny compared to the rest of the place.
* In ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'', the Library of Time in Shangri-La can magically summon up any book ever printed in all of history.
** Given that this is a [[Fred Perry]] title, the (male) librarian is [[Double Entendre|every inch]] the [[Hot Librarian]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'': Superman and companions are in another universe, where they encounter a single, standard-size page which they're told contains every possible page from all of time and every possible universe. Not surprisingly, they can't move it.
** Appears again in Superman's trip to Limbo in ''[[Final Crisis]]''. Except this time, Ultraman somehow manages to lift it and learn about {{spoiler|Mandrakk}}.
* The library of the Crystal Ballroom in ''Nexus'' contains all the historical memory of (at least the known) universe.
== Film ==
* The towering fortress-library in ''[[
* There are a few super-libraries in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' mythos: The Jedi library seen in the prequels; an enormous data collection belonging to a former smuggler; a whole planet is devoted to being a galactic library. All three of these are implied to be the sum of all knowledge in the galaxy (or damn near, at least)
** To the point where, when gravitational calculations prove that a planet MUST exist at a certain location, yet there is no record of such a planet, the librarian believes the library's records over the laws of physics. Just to drive home the point of how [[Vestigial Empire|complacent]] the Old Republic had become.
** The longest of these would likely be the ''Journal of the Whills'', kept by multiple Keeper of the Whills, who were responsible for adding data to it as time went on.
* ''[[The Librarian]]'' films are about a librarian of this type of library. Not only does it contain legendary and magical books, but also all the world's greatest and most dangerous treasures. Noah Wyle makes a very cute librarian.
* The great library of Gondor in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
* In ''[[Angels
* In the movie ''[[What Dreams May Come]]'' a briefly seen library invokes the same feeling. It is massive and there is no floor, only water. People just fly to get the books, also, it is ''a'' heaven so it could easily be an exact example of this trope.
* The library of [[Harry Potter|Hogwarts]] appears to be this for the Wizarding world, at least in the films. Justified in that the faculty would be able to spell up a new wing for the library whenever they'd want to [[Bigger on the Inside|expand it]], not to mention the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|books]] [[Great Big Book of Everything|themselves]].
== Literature ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. Interestingly, the library in Borges story is a lot less useful than most examples of this trope, because it is an infinitely large library that not only has every book ever, it contains every ''possible'' book. So yes, the true story of your own death is in there, but so is every conceivable ''false'' story of your own death, with nothing to distinguish them. Worse yet, the library is randomized, with no catalog or organization to help you find something specific. [[Deconstructed Trope|And more than 99.9999% of the books are simply gibberish]].
** When Borges first published the story, a friend pointed out to him that the vastness of the Library was
* The ''[[The Riftwar Cycle|Kingdom of the Isles]]'' has the library-fortress of Sarth, maintained by an order of monks. The library spans entire levels burrowed into a small hill, while an old dwarven mine beneath the hill provides even more room for expansion.
* The library of Unseen University in ''[[Discworld]]'' leads to other dimensions thanks to the sheer weight of accumulated knowledge distorting the space-time continuum. This is known as L-Space. The library itself is pretty much a universe of its own with all the magical books, library creatures such as the [[Grammar Nazi|thesaurus]] and lost tribes of research students inside.
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** Death's Library is a variation - every person's life story writes itself into a book somewhere on his shelves. As you go back, the histories are written on scrolls, then animal skins, then stone slabs... One character asks Death's daughter (adopted) what came before the slabs, because some people would "quite like to know". She replies that she didn't get that far, as she was running out of candles.
*** Which leads to a humorous scene where the protagonists find someone's book and upon going to the last page, are tipped off that he is sneaking up behind them.
*** They then temporarily incapacitate the sneaker by [[Throw the Book At Them|dropping
** Death also has a more straight version of this; at one point he is looking for information on the Discworld's version of [[Death World|Australia]], XXXX. He walks into the library and asks for information on the dangerous animals, and is [[Rummage Fail|buried in books]]. He then changes the request to the ''non''-dangerous ones, and one sheet of paper floats down, reading [[Everything Trying to Kill You|"some of the sheep"]].
* This is [[Older Than They Think]]
* The Great Library in the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books, which contains every book that will ever be written, and a few more besides.
* The Library of Alexandria in the ''[[
* The Library of Celaeno in August Derleth's [[Cthulhu Mythos]] novel ''[[The Trail of Cthulhu]]''. It's on the 4th planet of the star Celaeno in the Pleiades, and is full of arcane information.
** Another unusual library exists in the [[Dream World|Dreamlands]] in the short story "Principles and Parameters," which very likely draws on some earlier story.
* Classic [[H.P. Lovecraft
** Which is peanuts compared to the Pnakotus Archive of the Great Race of Yith hidden deep underground somewhere in the Australian Outback, which is supposed to contain the history and combined knowledge of every civilization that has ruled, or will ever rule, planet Earth.
** In HP Lovecraft's writing, some real world libraries also hold [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|tomes of Eldritch lore]]. The Necronomicon, one of the best known examples, can be found in the British Museum, the National Library of France, the Widener Library of Harvard University, and the University of Buenos Aires. Some of these (particularly the National Library of France) are so old and so large that they probably count as real life examples of the library of babel without the terrifying books which drive people mad.
* A [[Shout-Out]] to this. The library of the abbey in ''[[
* The novel ''Endymion Spring'' has The Last Book, which is basically a Library of Babel condensed into one volume. It's also known as the Book of Sand, another [[Shout-Out]] to Borges' work.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' has a variation of this: all the written knowledge in the history of ever, updated live. The Archive (dubbed "Ivy" by Harry) is a walking Library of Babel in the form of a young girl. Everything and anything that is written, she knows. Harry takes advantage of this in Book 10: {{spoiler|When Ivy is kidnapped, Harry, in the midst of figuring out what to do, grabs a piece of paper and writes a reassuring note, telling her that he's coming. Post-rescue, she mentions that she got it.}}
** A couple books later, he gets in touch with her by taking a napkin and writing the beginning of another note saying he needs her help. His phone rings with her on the line before he's finished writing it.
** Which means she knows [[Blessed
*** [[Word of God]] says that the Archive can also access every piece of electronic data as well. That means she can access [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|every porn site, every spam e-mail and every tweet]]. Even worse, she has access to [[Fate Worse Than Death|this very website]].
** Hi, Ivy! How's it going?
*** Quite well Troper, thank you for asking.
* In ''[[The Neverending Story (
* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' features several non-supernatural libraries which come close to this, including a massive system of filing cabinets, a collection of banned books, and a pile of valuable secret documents under a table.
** [[Once an Episode|Every single book]] features a library of some sort which is plot important.
* The Beast's library in [[Robin McKinley]]'s ''[[Beauty a Retelling of Beauty And The Beast|Beauty]]''. Might not have all the books that will ever be written, but it certainly has books that haven't been written as of when the story occurs.
* The book ''[[
* In ''[[Magnus]]'', the Library of Dragylon, Lucifer's fortress, is described thus:
{{quote|
* The Galactic Library on Trantor, from [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series, should count. {{spoiler|At least until it's sacked.}} Add in the 'finished' copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica which is used to 'provide' the chapter quotes, as the Encyclopedia project is intended as a compendium of human knowledge so it won't be forgotten, too.
* The Clayr's Great Library in Garth Nix's ''[[The Old Kingdom]]'' series, which first shows up in ''Lirael'', is under a mountain and doesn't limit itself to just books: odds and ends like sealed Free Magic beings and chambers large enough that it takes ten minutes to walk through them that contain only a pond, a tree, loads and loads of flowers and a fake sky (this is undergrounds, remember?) are hidden here and there. Working in the library is apparently dangerous enough that whole parties of armed librarians are required for trips into the lower levels, and all librarians are required to have various weapons as well as a whistle and a clockwork mouse that will raise an alarm in case of emergencies on their person. Oddly subverted in that the sheer volume of ''stuff'' in the library makes it quite difficult to find what you are really looking for when you need it and very easy to stumble upon things that should have stayed lost.
* Brutally [[Deconstructed]] in ''[http://home.comcast.net/~bcleere/texts/draper.html Ms Fnd in a Lbry]''.
* The Great Library of Pandathaway in the ''[[Guardians of the Flame]]'' series appears to
* Elinor's library in ''[[
* The
* [[Steven Moffat]]'s ''[[Doctor Who]]'' short story "Continuity Errors" has a planet-wide library (which he presumably autopilfered for "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" below).
* Occurs regularly as a location throughout [[
* The Archives of the University in ''[[The
* In Clifford Simak's "The Goblin Reservation", a crystal planet containing all the knowledge of the previous universe (the one before the last Big Bang) is offered as payment for the book's [[McGuffin]].
▲== Live Action TV ==
* The Library, so big it doesn't even need a name, just a The, from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' in "Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead."
** The Library is the entire planet. In fact, the moon is a virus checker. The Library {{spoiler|stored all the souls from all the people in The Library in The Library's computer core when Vashta Nerada began to kill everyone. It even gave them ''simulated lives''. }}
*** On a related note, the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Big Finish]] audio "The One Doctor" features Mentos, a being created for a game show that remarkably resembles The Weakest Link. It can answer any question by going back in time and finding the answer, essentially acting as a [[Library of Babel]]. [[Logic Bomb|It was only defeated by asking one question: What can't it answer?]]
* The school library in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is an approximation of this, with all those arcane references back in the rear stacks.
** ''[[Angel]]'' has the templates, seemingly empty books that can retrieve any and all of the works in the extensive library of [[Occult Law Firm|Wolfram & Hart]].
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** In one of [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[Star Trek]]'' novels, the ''Enterprise'' returns to Earth for a resupply, and while everyone else is on shore leave, Spock stays behind to update the ship's computers with information from all of Earth's major libraries. (He finds it relaxing.)
* The collectors' library in ''[[Andromeda]]''. Although it only appears once in the episode "Time out of Mind".
* The protagonist of ''[[John Doe]]'' carried
* The Gaia Library in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' is a neverending white void filled with bookshelves that only Philip can access. However, its function is more like a Search Engine of Babel as Philip needs keywords before he can get any of the information he needs.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'': Myka discovers that the eponymous [[Secret Government Warehouse|Warehouse]] also holds a massive library containing first editions of everything ever printed.
{{quote|
== Tabletop Games ==
* The Library of Yves in the [[Tabletop RPG]] ''[[
** Yves' demonic counterpart Chronos has an unsorted, unorganized, and incomplete version of Yves' Library. From a mortal's viewpoint, Chronos' Library qualifies for this trope.
* ''[[Warhammer
** The Imperium has thousands, ranging from Alexandria size to covering all the planets in a system. Unfortunately they seem to think cataloging things is a sin.
** Of particular note is the Adeptus Administratum Offices on Earth. The Administratum being essentially a galactic-scale bureaucracy goes through a lot of paperwork, which is them stored in kilometre-high stacks and likely never seen again until the end of time. The Adeptus Mechanicus ''never deletes anything'', and (despite the name) contains the majority of the Imperium's scientific talent.
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* The Library of Candlekeep in the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has shades of this, most notably the 'arcane knowledge' part; you must donate a book to the library in order to gain access, and most of the people who wish to do so are mages who donate low-level spellbooks.
* The dwindling race of Callidians, from the ''[[Talislanta]]'' game setting, are the keepers of a [[Library of Babel]] of pre-Great Disaster documents.
* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' has the Athenea of the Mysterium (which are generally on a somewhat smaller scale) as well as a Dominion of the Underworld which acts as a repository for all dead knowledge, also called the Atheneum.
* The Library of Celaeno (see {{smallcaps|[[Literature]]}}) makes an appearance in the ''[[Call of Cthulhu (
* The plane of Mirrodin from ''[[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic: the Gathering]]'' gives us the Knowledge Pool at Lumengrid, home of an entire race of [[Gadgeteer Genius]] [[Badass Bookworm|Badass Bookworms]] known as the Vedalken. While the Pool is ''technically'' less of a traditional library as it is a swirling mass of liquid wisdom compiled by its keepers over countless millenia, the Vedalken have made it their prerogative from Day 1 to collect as much knowledge as is concieviably possible.▼
* In the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting, the lich-king Azalin has a library which houses the self-updating life stories of every sentient being who has ever been born in his domain of Darkon, or who's entered it and stayed long enough to lose all memory of their previous life. Destroying your own book is one of the few ways to recover from Darkon's insidious [[Identity Amnesia]] effect.
▲* The plane of Mirrodin from ''[[
* In ''[[Planescape]]'', Thoth's Library.
{{quote|[http://mimir.net/musee/thoth.html They say Thoth's Library holds all the books that have ever been written, or ever will be. Doesn't sound likely to me - in my experience, 'they' say many things which aren't true.]|Magnum Opus}}
** In addition, [http://mimir.net/mechanus/burgs.shtml there is said to be an immense library inside the great rod] of [http://mimir.net/mechanus/index.shtml Mechanus].
== Video Games ==
* In the ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' verse, the Plane of Oblivion occupied by the Deidra Prince Hermaeus Mora is like this - an entire plane of reality filled with
** The legend and the Oghma continue in Oblivion. There's also the Imperial Library filled with The Elder Scrolls that contain all knowledge that was and ever will be...but seems less impressive after the description of Hermaeus Mora's.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'': The Library section of the Karazhan instance has bookshelves as tall as staircases, as well as books strewn all along the floor which can be picked up and used to give you one of a few buffs, depending on the tome.
** In addition to that, there are at least two libraries which might fit this trope even though they are physically small because they are larger on the inside than the outside, and/or because they have no normal doors and can only be reached by teleportation.
* In ''[[
** Bonus points for Patchouli, since she's not just the librarian, but also the author of an unspecified proportion of the books in her library, and probably the overwhelming majority of the magic books in the library, given the esoteric rules for wizardry in the ''Touhou'' 'verse.
** It is also worth noting, just to get a sense of its dimensions, that in the stage you fight in the Voile Library, it is possible for you have a roughly five-minute-long aerial battle over the bookshelves traveling in one direction without ever reaching the end.
*** Fanon has run away with the notion of Voile as a repository for nearly every book every written. Case in point: the doujin anime ''Musou Kakyou: A Summer Day's Dream'' goes as far as to depict the library with a volume of ''[http://rainbowsphere.oniichannoecchi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/snapshot20090108231943.jpg Wikipedia]''{{Dead link}} in stock.
** Canonically, it's size is unspecified but large, it mostly has grimoires, many written by Patchouli, and there's a handful of random books from the outside world. Considering that grimoires are illegible to anyone that can't use them, the library is completely useless to the vast majority of characters.
* The Dark People from ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' seek to obtain every book ever written, which they store in their library, located on a moving island whose location is a secret for but a few.
* The Library of the Ancients in ''[[
** Daguerreo in ''[[
*** It also has a more minor shout-out in the form of Tantarian, an optional boss book-monster that lives in a library (in a town called Alexandria, no less).
* Candlekeep in ''[[
* The Duke's Archives, the personal collection of Duke Seath the Scaleless in ''[[
== Visual Novels ==
* In ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons
* The final Episode of ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
== Web Comics ==
* The Bibliothiki in ''[[Wapsi Square]]''. It even has a semi-hot ([[Biological Mashup|the human parts of her]] are hot) librarian.
* The internet in ''[[
* [[Double Subverted]] in ''[[
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* The online story ''[[Dominion and Duchy]]'' has one in the Galactic Library. It is run by an A.I. known as the Librarian and apparently holds the contents of the Great Library of Alexandria. The Librarian was apparently organizing it for the humans when they make first contact.
* In the ''[[Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society]]'', the Library Arcanium, the Society's base, has just about every book ever written, from every universe, and is basically in another dimension. It is ''very'' big.
* ''[[Warning! Readers' Advisory]]'' is set in just such a library, under the watchful eye of its Librarian.
== Western Animation ==
* "The Library" in the desert in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' whose supernatural librarian, Wan Shi Tong, keeps humans outside because they [[Humans Are
{{quote|
** It makes sense why he's pissed, as humans only seem to want his knowledge to wage war on each other.
*** Though it still arguably involves some [[Blue and Orange Morality]]—he sees knowledge as good purely for its own sake, and doesn't seem to care who the "good" or "bad" guy in any conflict is.
* ''[[Futurama]]'': in "The Why of Fry" the Brain Spawn are constructing a database of all the knowledge in the universe, and once it's full, they plan to destroy the universe to make sure no new knowledge appears. In Fry's own words, "[[It's Personal|Now it's personal.]]"
** The Brain Spawn, amusingly, are actually scanning in EVERY SINGLE FACT (such as "2+2=4", "Puppies are cute", etc) not just tomes of knowledge or principles of mathematics. ([[Fridge Logic]]: If they wanted to store all mathematical facts, they'd need to record infinite facts of the form "n+n=2n" alone.)
** Spoofed in "Mars University". All the literature in the world is in the Mars U
* Twilight's library from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is
** The tree library in Ponyville, not so much. It's about the size of the average public library. The grand library tower in Canterlot, oh yes. Which makes perfect sense, as it's the library belonging to [[Physical God|Princess Celestia]]. Twilight just happens to have enough favor with Celestia to be permitted to ''live'' in it.
== Real Life ==
* The Internet itself could probably be the closest thing to a Real Life example, even the part about most of it being nonsense or forbidden knowledge is there with the networks and web databases that can't be accessed normally.
** Sites like Amazon and Google Books allow users to look inside select pages of millions upon millions of books, which could be thought of as a sort of immense library.
* Pretty much all of the developed nations have national libraries: tremendous collections of books, articles, magazines, and other printed/recorded material. The libraries of large research universities also contain vast collections, often including priceless historical artifacts.
** Since the Library of Congress is used to store publications for the U.S. Copyright office, virtually every work copyrighted in the U.S. is sent there, with just under half being added to the permanent collection. That amounts to an additional 10,000 items ''per day.''
* While nowhere near as well known as the library of Alexandria, the House of Wisdom, located in ancient Baghdad, was for its time the largest repository of knowledge in the world and actually held a great number of
** It was said that when the Mongols sacked Baghdad, the Tigris River ran black with ink from the scrolls they dumped in it.
* Einstein spoke of a "vast library, stacked from floor to ceiling with books in many different languages, arranged in an order we do not understand, but can dimly suspect". He called it the world.
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