Ulrich J. Schneider on Libraries as Democratic Spaces

“Today, when politicians think you can close down libraries because everything is available online, you have to remind them that libraries are not only for books; they are for people,” says Thomas Mann Fellow and former director of the Leipzig University Library, Ulrich J. Schneider. In his research, he examines the importance of public libraries in different social contexts. In this episode, Schneider explains how public libraries came to be places where people, regardless of their social status, can access knowledge and leave as changed persons.