Provides a historical study of libraries and books, their preservation, and destruction, from the U.S. to Europe and Asia, from medieval monasteries and Vatican collections to the ever-changing information highway of today.

Dr. Michael Anderson's life is threatened by unknown enemies when he advises his oldest friend and the President of the United States, John Russell, who fears he is on the verge of mental and physical collapse

Product Description: With textbook readers and digital downloads proliferating, it is easy to imagine a time when printed books will vanish. Such forecasts miss the mark, argue Jeffrey Schnapp and Matthew Battles. Future bookshelves will not be wholly virtual, and libraries will thrive―although in a variety of new social, cultural, and architectural forms...read more

Product Description: John Willis Clark, a noted academic and antiquarian, published this book in 1901 after completing his work on the architectural history of Cambridge. His carefully researched study (Clark personally visited and measured every building he described, and drew many of the illustrations), provides a wide-ranging account of the history of libraries from antiquity to the early modern period...read more

Product Description: This comprehensive volume, first published in 1864, covers the history of libraries from classical times to the nineteenth century, principally in England but also further afield. The author was an influential figure in the founding of municipal libraries in nineteenth-century Britain and regarded access to good libraries as crucial to education and civilisation...read more

This text describes the role that libraries played in ancient Egypt, Han-dynasty China, the ancient Western Clasical world, the Baghdad of Harun-al-Rashid, and medieval and Renaissance Europe. It continues with the libraries of colonial America, the Library of Congress, university libraries, and today's large public library systems. With the invention of the printing press and the spread of literacy, libraries served the common reader, as well as the priestly and princely elites against which Catholic and Protestant reformers rebelled. In the 20th century, libraries have supported both democratic institutions and have also been tools of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism. Today, at the dawn of the computer and telecommunication age, it is evident that libraries of the future will play a vital role in the presevation of crumbling books and documents, and in forming new ways of preserving increasingly digitized and technological forms of culture. The text suggests that the role of librarians and libraries in the information age promises to be more important than ever.

Through the ages, humanity has created, destroyed, rescued, neglected, discovered, stolen, and cherished libraries and no other institution so perfectly mirrors the human condition in any period of history.The Library tells the story of libraries and of the changing form and function of the book from era to era, whether clay tablets, parchment sheets, papyrus scrolls, glossy paper, recording tape or silicone chips. At the heart of the story of libraries and books is the story of the reader, who also has changed from era to era. Profusely illustrated, with fascinating is a comprehensive look at libraries that will interest book lovers and librarians. 100 illustrations, 80 in color

Takes you on a journey from ancient Mesopotamia to modern times, showing how the urge to write, read and collect books has always gone hand in hand with the impulse to destroy them. This work also reveals a danger facing libraries with the digitalization of books threatening both the existence of the physical book and the idea of reading for free.

'A historical survey of the destruction of knowledge from ancient Babylon and China to modern times'--Provided by publisher.

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Product Description: The Memory of Mankind is an illustrated history of the unique role libraries have played in the history of civilzation. Don Heinrich Tolzmann took the classic German-language work The History of Libraires by Alfred Hessel (published 1925 and translated by Reuben Peiss in 1950) and expanded it with additional text to cover the important past 75 years...read more

Product Description: First edition. Foreword by John Y. Cole, followed by 16 separate essays on library history. These include Lee Shiflett on Louis Shores, John David Marshall on the Library History Round Table, Wayne A. Wiegand on library literature produced over the period 1947-1997, and many other interesting essays...read more

A history of libraries throughout the world, from those of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians to the comprehensive libraries of today.

Surveys the libraries of ancient, Medieval, and modern times. Substantially revised from the 1976 third edition (first in 1965) to incorporate the new history of books, the electronic advances in communication, and the political changes in Europe since the late 1980s. The bibliographies are also updated to reflect current thinking about both the past and the current significance of libraries. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. (view table of contents)

Product Description: The famous Bucher bewegten die Welt: Eine Kulturgeschichte des Buches (2d ed., Verlag Anton Hiersemann, 1968) is a rich history of books and publishing and libraries. Much attention is devoted to the development of printing and the rise of the great modern research libraries...read more

Traces the development of libraries from ancient times and discusses their important influence on the progress of civilization. Bibliogs