Christian Kriticos writes: “In an era before the printing press, books were a valuable commodity. They could take months to produce, as the entire text had to be painstakingly written out by hand. So, just as universities solicit cash from their alumni today, Merton College in Oxford, England, insisted its 13th-century fellows donated books. The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a decree in 1276 introducing this requirement, which marked the beginning of the library at Merton College. Merton’s library predates the Aztec Empire, and its users have encompassed everyone from famous 14th-century mathematicians to Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.”