I was shocked to learn of the fate of the Library of the Catholic University in Leuven. At the beginning of World War I, it contained approximately 230,000 books, 950 manuscripts, and 800 ancient incunabula. The invading German army wanted to teach the resisting people of Belgium a lesson and burned the library to the ground including all its contents. After the war, international outrage over this destruction led to building a new library and a new collection. Tragically, during the fighting at the beginning of World War II, the library was destroyed again. The destruction of this library started my interest in developing a project on global libraries. As became apparent during our 2016 travels in Europe, the destruction of books and libraries has often accompanied other crises, especially political ones. World War II destroyed more books and libraries than any other event in human history. The German army singled out books for destruction and created special book-burning squads who were sent to burn libraries and synagogues. Tragically, we found many examples in Europe of what I call bibliocide.