Introduction / Alice Crawford -- Part 1. The Library through Time. 1. Adventures in ancient Greek and Roman libraries / Edith Hall ; 2. The image of the medieval library / Richard Gameson ; 3. The Renaissance library and the challenge of print / Andrew Pettegree ; 4. From printing shop to bookshelves : how books began the journey to Enlightenment libraries / Robert Darnton ; 5. "The advantages of literature" : the subscription library in Georgian Britain / David Allan ; 6. Literature and the library in the nineteenth century / John Sutherland -- Part 2. The Library in Imagination. 7. The library in fiction / Marina Warner ; 8. The library in poetry / Robert Crawford ; 9. The library in film : order and mystery / Laura Marcus -- Part 3. The Library Now and in the Future. 10. "Casting and gathering" : libraries, archives, and the modern writer / Stephen Enniss ; 11. Meanings of the library today / John P. Wilkin ; 12. The modern library and global democracy / James H. Billington.