Author: Richard Ovenden Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674241207 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia. Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point. Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process. More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.
Author: Chris Coppens Publisher: Leuven University Press ISBN: Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 552
Book Description
The Library reflects not only six centuries of University history, but also many chapters of European history and even world history in the last century. A president of the United States played a leading role, and a Japanese emperor also figures in it. The Library, built with American funds, was conceived as an American memorial to the Great War of 1914-1918. All this means the Library is not merely another university building. The past has imbued it with the higher values that survive human conflict. The University Library has been in full development since 1970. With its historic collection, the Maurits Sabbe Library is a living research centre for matters of religion and theology. The Arenberg Campus Library, a science library housed in a sixteenth-century monastery, combines technology and heritage. The various branch libraries range from law and philosophy to medicine, from ancient colleges in the heart of Leuven to the university hospital on the edge of the town.
Author: Jan Van Impe Publisher: Leuven University Press ISBN: 905867925X Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 132
Book Description
Updated pocket guide with history, architecture, biographical notes and a walking tour in and around the library. The University Library at the Mgr. Ladeuzeplein in Leuven is not only a beautiful building and a modern scientific library consulted by more than 100,000 readers a year, but also an important historical monument. Its foundations are rooted in that tragic episode in the 20th century, the First World War. In the mass destruction of Leuven in 1914 the library of the University was burned and completely destroyed. Thanks to generous American donations the new library building on the Mgr. Ladeuzeplein was established in 1921.
Author: Wim François Publisher: Peeters ISBN: 9789042941540 Category : Manuscripts Languages : en Pages : 127
Book Description
The Maurits Sabbe Library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) holds an exceptional treasury of manuscripts and printed books dating from the 10th to the 19th century. As part of KU Leuven Libraries it is recognised as a Heritage Library of the Flemish Community. This beautifully illustrated volume explores fourty-five remarkable books representing the immense variety and richness of the collections in the Maurits Sabbe Library. The described Bibles, missals, atlases, religious, devotional, historical, botanical, and medical works are all reflecting the wealth of one of the most distinctive rare book collections in the Low Countries.
Author: Ralph Dekoninck (Historien de l'art.) Publisher: St. Joseph's University Press ISBN: Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
"This volume includes the late Elisabeth Stopp's previously unpublished study of La vie symbolique du bienheureux Francois de Sales (1664) of Adrien Gambart (1660-68), an introductory essay by Agnes Guiderdoni-Brusle that updates and amplifies Stopp's work, and a facsimile of Gambart's emblem book. This book was inspired by the life and writings of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), and written for the Sisters of the Visitation monastery of Faubourg Saint-Jacques in Paris, where Gambart, a Vincentian priest, served as chaplain for over thirty years. It was published in preparation for Francis's canonization in 1665." "Stopp's study offers an English translation of the key observations made by Gambart about each of the fifty-two emblems, while the facsimile makes available Gambarts original French text. Moreover, the facsimile is reproduced in color in order to convey the tonal richness of the original emblems."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Matthew Battles Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393078620 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
"Splendidly articulate, informative and provoking....A book to be savored and gone back to."—Baltimore Sun On the survival and destruction of knowledge, from Alexandria to the Internet. Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Matthew Battles, a rare books librarian and a gifted narrator, takes us on a spirited foray from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library, from socialist reading rooms and rural home libraries to the Information Age. He explores how libraries are built and how they are destroyed, from the decay of the great Alexandrian library to scroll burnings in ancient China to the destruction of Aztec books by the Spanish—and in our own time, the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia. Encyclopedic in its breadth and novelistic in its telling, this volume will occupy a treasured place on the bookshelf next to Baker's Double Fold, Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, Manguel's A History of Reading, and Winchester's The Professor and the Madman.
Author: Luc Verpoest Publisher: Leuven University Press ISBN: 9462702500 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 354
Book Description
The challenges of post-war recovery from social and political reform to architectural design In the months and years immediately following the First World War, the many (European) countries that had formed its battleground were confronted with daunting challenges. These challenges varied according to the countries' earlier role and degree of involvement in the war but were without exception enormous. The contributors to this book analyse how this was not only a matter of rebuilding ravaged cities and destroyed infrastructure, but also of repairing people’s damaged bodies and upended daily lives, and rethinking and reforming societal, economic and political structures. These processes took place against the backdrop of mass mourning and remembrance, political violence and economic crisis. At the same time, the post-war tabula rasa offered many opportunities for innovation in various areas of society, from social and political reform to architectural design. The wide scope of post-war recovery and revival is reflected in the different sections of this book: rebuild, remember, repair, and reform. It offers insights into post-war revival in Western European countries such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as well as into how their efforts were perceived outside of Europe, for instance in Argentina and the United States.
Author: Mel Collier Publisher: Leuven University Press ISBN: 9058678377 Category : Business planning Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
This book brings together international experience of business planning for digital libraries: the business case, planning processes, costs and benefits, practice and standards, and comparison with the traditional library. Although there is a vast literature already on other aspects of digital libraries, business planning is a subject that until now has not been systematically integrated in a book. Digital libraries are being created not only by traditional libraries but also by museums, archives, media organizations, and any institution concerned with managing scientific and cultural information. Business Planning for Digital Libraries is designed for practitioners in the cultural and scientific sectors, for students in information sciences and cultural management, and in particular for people engaged in managing digital libraries and repositories, in electronic publishing and e-learning, and in teaching and studying in these fields.
Author: Guido Langouche Publisher: Leuven University Press ISBN: Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 168
Book Description
Describes the history of the Celestine priory at Leuven from the early 16th century to its conversion to a university science library in the early 21st century by architect Rafael Moneo.
Author: Jacob van Sluis Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004352260 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 358
Book Description
From 1585 to 1843, the Dutch town Franeker housed the University of Franeker. It had its peak in the seventeenth century and attracted students from Protestant countries throughout Europe. A library was founded right from the start and its collection has been preserved almost entirely. Eleven catalogues were printed in the course of its existence, and as a result the development of the collection can be examined chronologically. The Library of Franeker University in Context, 1585–1843 discusses the relationship with education at Franeker University in detail, and makes a comparison with other similar libraries.
Author: Richard Ovenden
Author: Chris Coppens
Author: Jan Van Impe
Author: Wim François
Author: Ralph Dekoninck (Historien de l'art.)
Author: Matthew Battles
Author: Luc Verpoest
Author: Mel Collier
Author: Guido Langouche
Author: Jacob van Sluis