| Fire |
| Earthquakes, floods, cyclones |
| Wars, revolutions, civil unrest | |||
|
| Sold, auctions, confiscations |
| Various or undetermined methods of destruction |
| Undetermined location for state (US) or country | |||
|
|
Book Town or Village | Total events |
Location of libraries, archives, and religious sites (events, for brevity) that disappeared or were dispersed. Current and proposed book towns and villages are included for reference. The events are loaded chronologically, from 3000 B.C. to the present. All these events affected, in one or other way, the transmission of knowledge or tradition. This is a small sample of the events available in
"Abridged Chronology of Destroyed Libraries." If you know of any event that is not included, or there is an inaccurary in the description, location, or dates, please email the addition or the correction, resp., to cda AT alum.mit.edu.
Data compiled by the author. Mongolian monastery data from http://mongoliantemples.net/sites.php (2005). Tibetan monastery data from http://www.colorado.edu/APS/landscapes/tibet/inventory.htm (2009). Maps drawn using the Google Maps API. Screen sample of the World, UK, and London's fire (1666) implemented with an earlier version of the program, when Google made other icons available.
Center of the map: Latitude = ; Longitude = .