India, Oct. 2 -- There is a reason libraries once occupied entire rooms in palaces and mansions.

Books were the new technology: expensive, rare, and, for most people, difficult to access.

Until the mid-15th century, they were all painstakingly crafted by hand.

To possess a large collection didn't simply imply one was well-read; it underscored vital access to knowledge that much of the world did not have.

With the invention of the printing press by German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, a radical idea emerged: knowledge and culture could now move beyond the confines of the elite.

Eventually, trusts were established, governments stepped in, libraries expanded collections , making this precious technology free - if only temporaril...