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Library : an unquiet history / Matthew Battles.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Analytics: Show analyticsPublication details: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2015]Description: x, 253 pages : illustrations ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 9780393351453 (pbk.)
  • 0393351459
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 027.009 23
LOC classification:
  • Z 721 B336l 2015
Contents:
Reading the library -- Burning Alexandria -- The house of wisdom -- The battle of the books -- Books for all -- Knowledge on fire -- Lost in the stacks -- Afterword.
Summary: Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard MetaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new epilogue elucidates the preservation of knowledge amid the creative destruction of twenty-first century technology.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Libro Libro Biblioteca Juan Bosch Biblioteca Juan Bosch Humanidades Humanidades (4to. Piso) Z 721 B336l 2015 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00000119889

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-235) and index.

Reading the library --
Burning Alexandria --
The house of wisdom --
The battle of the books --
Books for all --
Knowledge on fire --
Lost in the stacks --
Afterword.

Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard MetaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new epilogue elucidates the preservation of knowledge amid the creative destruction of twenty-first century technology.

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