On November 6, the USC Liibraries and the USC Francophone Research and Resource Center present a lecture by Lucien X. Polastron. He will discuss the radical challenges to print culture and libraries durind the 21st century, including the consequences for human knowledge when libraries are destroyed in Bosnia and Iraq, and digital information becomes the dominant medium in the Google era.
In Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History, Polastron traces the threats to books—and unpopular ideas—from the ruins of Sumerian libraries and the fabled Library of Alexandria through Nazi-era book burnings and the present. He speaks in conjunction with our fall exhibition, Biblioclasm: The Assault on Ideas from Homer to Harry Potter.
Polastron will speak on Thursday, November 6, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. in Doheny Library's Intellectual Commons. You can RSVP online (use code: 1106) or by calling (213) 740-1744. Free parking is available for guests who RSVP through Gate 4 at Royal St., off Jefferson Blvd. Light refreshments will be served. Call Tyson Gaskill at 213-740-2070 for more information.
We would like to thank the cultural services office of the French embassy for their assistance.