Richard Ovenden inaugurates a new campus series on academic freedom and expression
Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford, spoke about the willful destruction of recorded knowledge for an October event at Hayden Library titled “Book Wars.” The author of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge, Ovenden provided a historical overview of attacks on libraries — from the library of Ashurbanipal destroyed by fire in 612 BC, to book burning under the Nazi regime, to current efforts across the United States to remove or restrict access to books. The talk was the inaugural event in a new series called Conversations on Academic Freedom and Expression (CAFE), a collaboration between the MIT Libraries and History at MIT.

“At this moment in our history, we should try to encourage discussion, and not debate,” said Ovenden. “We must try to move away from this idea that it’s a contest, that it’s a battle, and encourage and foster the idea of listening and discussion. And that’s all part of the deliberation that I think is necessary for a healthy society.”