Richard Ovenden on the fragility and importance of Libraries

Richard Ovenden ​has been ​Bodley’s Librarian (the senior executive position of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) since 2014. ​He is a ​ Fellow​ at the​ Society of Antiquaries and Royal Society of Arts; ​a ​​member​ of the American Philosophical Society; Treasurer, ​at ​the Consortium of European Research Libraries; ​and ​President​ ​of ​the Digital Preservation Coalition. ​He was ​​awarded the OBE by The Queen in 2019.​    And almost as big a deal, he joined me recently on Zoom to talk about his new book, Burning the Books, a history of the deliberate destruction of knowledge; about the threats to libraries past and present; about fire, war, violence, obsolescence, complacency and underfunding. And about the fragility of libraries, and their fundamental importance to democracy, to truth and facts, to the rule of law, in short, to our treasured Western way of life.