000			01427nam a22001937a 4500
999			_c33940 _d33940
008			200106b2004 ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a0099437074
060			_aZ 665.
100	1		_aBattles, Matthew
245	1		_aLibrary : _ban unquiet history
260			_aLondon : _bVintage, _c2004
300			_axa, 245p.
520			_aThrough the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved, but shaped, inspired and obliterated knowledge. Matthew Battles takes us on a fascinating journey from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library. The library has been a battleground of competing notions of what books mean to us, from the clay-tablet collections of ancient Mesopotamia to the legendary libraries of Alexandria, from the burned scrolls of the Qing Dynasty to the book-pyres of the Hitler Youth, from the Dewey Decimal System to the Internet. Battles explores how the library has served two contradictory impulses: to exalt canons of literature, to secure and celebrate the best writing; and the desire to contain all forms of human knowledge - to keep all the books. In its custody of books and the words they contain, the library has confronted and tamed technology, the forces of change and the power of princes time and again.
650			_aLibraries
650			_aHistory
650			_aCulture
650			_aCivilisation
942			_n0 _01