# Britain is losing its libraries and its cultural memory

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/britain-is-losing-its-libraries-and-its-cultural-memory
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/britain-is-losing-its-libraries-and-its-cultural-memory.md
Podcast: [The New Statesman Podcast, Subscriber Only Edition](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815)
Published: 2026-08-01T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nssubscribers1913/260731_RichOvePOD_v01.mp3?dest-id=814410
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/episodes/britain-is-losing-its-libraries-and-its-cultural-memory
Duration seconds: 2146

## Resource

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.

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## Transcript

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