Throughout the ages people have always used theirknowledge and their intelligence in order to act, to create, to develop. Sources of knowledge were provided to people via several social institutes. A fundamental social institute that provides information and supports knowledge is the library.

The research and the conquest of knowledge has as a starting point the first moment that the person stepped his foot on earth. At the beginning this research was related to the discovery and the comprehension of the world and its phenomena. Since writing was discovered and since people perceived the importance of transmission of knowledge via written information, they perceived also the need for its storage. From very far away in the past we have the first samples of particular spaces of storage, classification and maintainance of these written information, that is the “libraries”.

The form of libraries developed throughout the centuries by changing many times its character and its way of operation. The arrival of internet and of other technologies of information and communication has caused intense impact on libraries. At this point certain questions are created that concern the place of the book in the libraries, the new character of the libraries and the role that they play in the modern society. In an attempt to answer these questions we use several examples of modern libraries, of buildings that were created the past few years in all over the world- the National library London, the central libraries of Brabant and of Delft in Holland, the library of Alexandria in Egypt and the central library of Seattle in Washington- and we escalate this research with the use of a recent Architectural Competition for the creation of the central library of Prague that begins its creation by being influenced by all the changes and the new technologies that have raised the recent years.