The Emperor invoked Nebo, god of wisdom and learning, to bless his
"books", praying:

Forever, O Nebo, King of all heaven and earth,
Look gladly upon this Library
Of Ashur-bani-pal, his (thy) shepherd, reverencer of thy
divinity.[7]

Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873 was exceedingly
fruitful of results. More tablets were discovered and translated. In
the following year he returned to the ancient Assyrian city on behalf
of the British Museum, and added further by his scholarly achievements
to his own reputation and the world's knowledge of antiquity. His last
expedition was made early in 1876; on his homeward journey he was
stricken down with fever, and on 19th August he died at Aleppo in his
thirty-sixth year. So was a brilliant career brought to an untimely
end.

Rassam was engaged to continue Smith's great work, and between 1877
and 1882 made many notable discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia,
including the bronze doors of a Shalmaneser temple, the sun temple at
Sippar; the palace of the Biblical Nebuchadrezzar, which was famous
for its "hanging gardens"; a cylinder of Nabonidus, King of Babylon;
and about fifty thousand tablets.

M. de Sarzec, the French consul at Bassorah, began in 1877 excavations
at the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash (Shirpula), and continued them
until 1900. He found thousands of tablets, many has reliefs, votive
statuettes, which worshippers apparently pinned on sacred shrines, the