Hope among the rubble

Twitter has been flooded by photos of libraries across Japan this week, showing scenes of chaos repeated in schools, universities and public libraries shaken by the earthquake. 
Why libraries? 
The New Yorker says: 'These are images of hope, as much as of disaster, and they speak to the idea that the things most fundamental to a culture—in this case, its codified knowledge — have not been lost'.
Top: The library of the Sendai Mediatheque, taken just after the quake by Eishi Katsura. Middle: the same library before the quake. Above: Library Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture and Central Library, University of Tsukaba.