ABSTRACT
When printing with movable type was invented - probably by Gutenberg, probably in Mainz around the middle of the fifteenth century - it paved the way for the modern, industrial age. The invention of printing led to the development of what we call the publishing industry and to the mass production of the wide range of books, journals, newspapers, tracts, pamphlets, reports and other publications which contain the literary and informative works which record and document mankind’s collective history and experience. The existence of this material in turn led to the development of library and information services (LISs) to provide for the collection and recording of the material and to make provision for access to it by users.
