Welcome to another edition of "From Our Shelves," where I read a book from our collection and write a short review about it to help you decide if you want to read it or not. This week (April 7-13) is National Library Week, a week to promote libraries, their services, and advocate for supporting our libraries. Hutchins Library will be celebrating with a series of events this week. The library sent out campus wide emails with the flyer listing the events. I hope the campus community will join us.
These are challenging times for libraries given issues such as book challenges and bans. In fact, the American Library Association reported a record number of unique book titles challenged in American libraries in 2023. This week then I am featuring a book that looks at some of this history. The book is Burning the Books: a History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge by Richard Ovenden. In this book, destruction can go from warfare and pillage (which can include what the author might charitably call "displaced or migrated" archives, but you want to read on for details) to neglect and defunding. The book also presents stories of librarians, archivists, and other ordinary people working to save knowledge, often at great risk to their lives. The book covers from ancient times to the modern era. The author's discussion of modern archives, digital data, and preservation are a great reason to read this book. See below for the library catalog link and entry to find the book in Hutchins Library.
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