Description: Libraries preserve the knowledge and ideas on which rights depend; no wonder they are so often attacked. Richard Ovenden tells the history of this deliberate destruction of knowledge--from library burnings to digital attacks and contemporary underfunding--and makes a passionate plea for the importance of these threatened institutions.
Brief description: Richard Ovenden is Director of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2019, is a member of the American Philosophical Society, and serves as Treasurer of the Consortium of European Research Libraries and President of the Digital Preservation Coalition.
Review Quotes: Unbiased and first-rate scholarship.--Jeffrey Garrett "Library Quarterly"