Episode

Britain is losing its libraries and its cultural memory

Podcast
The New Statesman Podcast, Subscriber Only Edition
Published
Aug 1, 2026
Duration seconds
2146
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts
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Markdown
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Summary

Every year, more libraries across Britain close their doors. As councils have their funding slashed, these are often the first spaces to go. What do we lose when we stop reading and collecting? What is a library to a community, beyond its books? Tanjil Rashid is joined by the University of Oxford's Bodley's Librarian, Richard Ovenden.