Bits and Votes: The Role of Libraries and Archives in Open Societies

Richard Ovenden has been Bodley’s Librarian (the senior Executive position of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) since 2014.

His keynote speech at LIBER 2019 is entitled ‘Bits and votes: The role of libraries and archives in open societies’, and will consider the role that libraries play in preserving knowledge and in making it available in the context of the attacks on open society.

The talk will look at historic and contemporary threats to knowledge, and the motivations of those that seek to destroy knowledge or restrict access. It will look in particular at the steps being taken by the library and archive community on the front line of preserving and sharing knowledge in defence of open societies.