Library : an unquiet history / Matthew Battles.

By:

Battles, Matthew

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: 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	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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