A blogger at The Urbana Free Library compares the fate of the wondrous library in ancient Alexandria with the squeeze being put on today’s public libraries in the wake of the global recession.

We may not be forced from our positions at the point of a spear or watch the governor (like archbishop Theophilus) reduce each library “to a heap of rubbish” or see them all “closed forever, like tombs” as in fourth-century Rome.

But the fate of our public libraries in tumultuous times speaks volumes about the men and women occupying seats of power, their wisdom, and their values.