Books and literature are dear to my heart, and visiting libraries has always been enjoyable. But I would really like to know more about the history of libraries!
When did the practice of storing written texts become popular?
Were libraries always public buildings, or were did they only allow certain people?
When did the practice of sharing fiction become popular? When was the practice of being allowed to take Books home brought in?
Did any well known historical figures have their own private libraries (were any of them specific or of an interesting nature)?
What impact did public libraries have on the population in general?
Any other information not covered in my questions is more than welcomed!
Earlier than you may be interested, but here is my knowledge of medieval libraries.
In the Roman world, there were libraries, such as the Library of Alexandria. I can't speak to how open or closed they were, but private individuals, particularly wealthy ones, likely had their own books collections as well. Certainly emperors had their own libraries, and in the early Middle Ages, this tradition of a palace or court library seems to have continued. However, it is misleading to say that these were in any way "public libraries." Rather, the texts written and copied for Charlemagne and his heirs were intended for the edification of the whole empire, part of a larger program of "correctio," a term used by scholars like Mayke de Jong to identify the Carolingian process of church renewal. The goal of having a proper set of texts was to have a central location from which proper knowledge could be transmitted to all of Francia. Charlemagne so desired having the proper copies of texts for his palace library that he wrote to the abbot of Monte Cassino in Italy for a copy of the original Rule of Benedict, and he wrote to Pope Hadrian for a proper copy of the Gregoria's Sacramentary.
The other type of library you find in the early Middle Ages are monastic libraries, which would have been open to all members of the monastery (and maybe some nobles who sent their sons/daughters to the monastery for education). Monastic legislation from the early Middle Ages actually requires for monks to read or listen to excerpts from books in the library. It's actually really interesting to see what books they had in the library. There are some lists of library registers that survive from the 8th and 9th century for the monasteries of Fulda, St. Gall, and Reichenau (among others).
On a different note: in American history, Andrew Carnegie, robber baron and steel tycoon, founded public libraries all across the US in his name. There was one in the town my father grew up in. Any Carnegie library was founded by him in the early 20th century.