The exhibition marks the culmination year of the "500 Years of Latvian Books" event series, inviting reflection on libraries and reading as essential to a democratic society. It centers on the Riga City Library (1524) — Riga's first public library, whose dramatic and vivid history serves as a focal point. The exhibition uses this example to prompt thought and discussion about changing societal and intellectual processes, emphasizing the library as a model that reflects wider patterns in both individual and collective efforts to understand the world. It also highlights the importance of literacy, books, and libraries in shaping the future, asking whether we want a future in the hands of an illiterate and uncritical-thinking society.