Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king - "Warrior. Scholar. Empire builder. King slayer. Lion hunter. Librarian."
Some remnants from his library of clay tablets. According to the blog to accompany this British Museum exhibition, Ashurbanipal developed the first systematically collected and catalogued library in the world.
He wanted a copy of every book worth having and sent minions across his empire to gather them. Not just any old library, but sounds like the first legal deposit library.
