A popular myth holds that all librarians are inspired by a love of books. As with all such stereotypes, it doesn’t take long working in the profession to realise that it is only partly true, only slightly more so than the cardigan, bun and glasses with which we are usually endowed in the popular imagination. Librarians, in fact, whatever their initial sentiments about books, commonly become blasé about the volumes they are responsible for and can be pitiless in weeding out the less attractive, useful and popular books from their collections. David Pearson’s new book sets out to make librarians and others who have books in their care think again about their value as cultural artefacts and pieces of historical evidence, especially at this moment in history when they are beginning to lose their primary role as repositories of the world’s knowledge.

Pearson is a librarian and a scholar of book history, a combination which is rarer than might be imagined. What is especially unusual is that he is a library manager – Director of the University of London Research Library Services. Such people these days are rarely able to pursue a second career in research, even if they hold senior positions. The scholar librarian usually sits somewhat lower down the hierarchy. However, Pearson is the author of three excellent works on book history: Provenance Research in Book History (1994), English Bookbinding Styles 1450–1800 (2005), and now Books as History: The Importance of Books beyond Their Texts.