Yeah, geek stuff, but I love it. I used to be on the board of my local library, and we had treasures, too (our original collection was purchased for the library by Ben Franklin). Via Atlas Obscura:
Librarians take these kinds of questions very seriously, so when Atlas Obscura contacted some of our favorite libraries to ask about the oldest books in their collections, we were treated to a wealth of information about the treasures they hold.
The New York Public Library, for instance, has not only cuneiform tablets and ninth-century gospels, but also a Gutenberg Bible and a copy of The Bay Psalm Book, one of the oldest books printed in America. In addition to its own cuneiform tablets and Gutenberg Bible, the Library of Congress holds one of the oldest examples of printing in the world, passages from a Buddhist sutra, printed in A.D. 770, as well as a medieval manuscript from 1150, delightfully titled Exposicio Mistica Super Exod.
In the history of writing, bound books as we know them today arrive fairly late, so there are no actual “books” on this list. Instead, this is a wondrous collection of illuminated manuscripts, papyrus scrolls, and clay tablets. Some of these items you can even see in person, if you pay a visit.
Debunking space aliens.
The Sumerians are credited with inventing writing.
But why did they invent it?
Did someone(s) have time on their hands and feel that it would be an interesting and useful thing to do?
Or did the Anunnaki (those who come from the sky) order the dumb humans to do it and then show them how?
More then likely writing came from the mind of an artist expressing themselves, rather than a grey from the Pleiades.
Certainly the Vatican Library, the oldest and most extensive library on earth, holds the answer.