Top 10 Fictional Libraries (Sleestak Sunday)

"Sleestak Sunday" starts a little earler this time....
Libraries are full of fiction books. I wouldn't go as far to say that fiction books are full of libraries, but there are a few to look at. This list not only draws from novels, but also from comics and TV and other sources. And since it is Sleestak Sunday, the first entry is Sleestak related.

Sleestak "Library of Skulls"

• The Library of Skulls, from "The Land of the Lost". No books here. Just empty Sleestak skulls inhabited with the intoning spirits of the Sleestak's dead ancestors. The primitive Sleestak go here to receive the dubious wisdom and advice emparted to them by the skulls. It was one of those great concepts from the show. Once Chaka checked out one of the skulls without permission, and the Sleestak got very angry indeed. "He stole the skull of the voice of wisdom!".  I saw one of the Sleestak (or Altrusian) skulls from the library go on eBay once for hundreds of dollars. Sleestak skull mood lamps also exist (click here). But what sort of mood would they be appropriate for?
  
• Biblos. An entire library planet. David Brin's "Uplift" novels are way-above-average science fiction novels. They are of the future space empire type. If you know "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" you know the type of novel. Humankind in the future having expanded beyond the earth and colonized planets, and is having common interactions with other spacefaring alien races. What sets humankind apart from the other races? Books. We even have a library planet called Biblos in the distant future. "....But humans' greatest gift was paper. In creating the printed trove of Biblos, they became lore masters..." From Infinity's Shore.
• The library at Miskatonic University, from H. P. Lovecraft. Best place to go to get books that you might die from reading.
• Lucien's Library, from "The Sandman "comic book series.It contains all of the books that are dreamt of, but never written
• The Graveyard of Unwritten Books. "Here, in what is known as the Graveyard of Unwritten Books, or the Well of Locks, all books banned by authorities throughout the world are shut away. Some of these books were published and then forbidden; others were stillborn; many never reached the written page. Visitors are advised to bring a flashlight and not to be seen with a book in their hands."
• Library at Hogwarts. From Harry Potter, of course. The biggest source of magical tomes I've ever read of. he  It "is located on the third floor of Hogwarts Castle and contains tens of thousands of books on thousands of shelves. Overseen by Madam Irma Pince, the library is where students can go to peruse or borrow books to supplement their studies (or for personal enjoyment). The library closes at 8:00 pm". To do what you want in the library, including rip pages out of books and go into restricted sections, it is best to wear an invisibility cloak.
• Library at Gormenghast. Mouldery, chaotic, and vast, it is probably the inspiration for the library at Hogwarts [Lord Supulchrave's] "sanctuary or fortress of solitude is the Library, a building in Gormenghast to which he retires every night after his ceremonial duties have been discharged and in which he remains reading until the small hours of the morning. The Library is located in the shadow of the Tower of Flints, the heart of Gormenghast and a Dark Tower that comes to dominate Sepulchrave's mind. His melancholia infects the very air of the library; ‘imparting its illness on either side.’ He reads of every subject but he is drawn particularly to poetry. Fragments of the fictional poets that he reads allow [Mervyn] Peake to exercise his considerable poetic gifts within the novel."
• The Library of Babel. "The ultimate librarian story, however, may be Jorge Luis Borges's 1956 "The Library of Babel" in which the entire universe is a library, one hexagonal gallery after another. The problem is that there is no catalog. There are not even any decipherable books. All the possible combinations of letters are imprinted in the books, but none of them make sense—or if one makes sense it has not yet been found.:"



The Library of Yith: "If you don't return this book
on time, we will come and peench you."

•  The library of Yith, from H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time. Yes, click on the preceeding link to read this fine story, which is now in the public domain. The library of the Great Race of Yith has the most impressive looking librarians ever (the large crustaceans seen to the right). ever. It offered "a 1936 scenario in which the consciousnesses of scholars from all eras were brought to an ancient, alien library to write manuscripts for the collection. As an aid to their scholarship, they were allowed to examine forbidden and legendary books".Antique books have a lot of power in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The library of Yith existed in Australia 65 million years ago in the past, in the Library City of Pnakotus. Imagine the overdue fine you could build up for not having returned a book checked out that long ago. There'd be no hiding from the Yith library police, either: they can travel through time and put the pinch on you.
  
• The library at Trantor. From Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" books: "The Library of Trantor was one of the prominent features of the fictional planet Trantor, created by Isaac Asimov and appearing in his Empire Series and the Foundation Series. Located in the Imperial Sector of the planet, it was variously referred to as the Imperial Library of the Galactic Empire, the University of Trantor Library, and the Galactic Library, in which librarians index the entirety of human knowledge by walking up to a different computer terminal every day and resuming where the previous librarian had left off."   Don't know Trantor by name? You might know Coruscant, the entirely paved-over urbanized imperial capital planet from "Star Wars", clearly inspired by Trantor. I bet they have a large library too.

Here is a related link about fictional libraries which you might find interesting. Wikipedia also lists a few fictional library entries here. Are there any more libraries to suggest?