I saw an intriguing story on the web regarding the British Library (the library of the British Museum
This is a fantastic project because catastrophes are known to occur. Floods, fires, neglect and deterioration have ruined innumerable irreplaceable pieces of work. Once the works are digitized and become part of the ether that is the internet they will be immortal. Unless of course the internet experiences some sort of world wide collapse.
Imagine if we had had such power prior to the destruction of the Alexandria
When I was researching digital libraries I came across an interesting project on a site called the Internet Archive site. The project proposed was to scan 'all the books and texts' in the world(?) and then store the original books in environmentally controlled containers! It seemed serious - although there was a lot of lively discussion about the merits or problems of such a plan. Librarians wrote into say that The Library of Congress was basically doing that very thing. And the fact that this project was not being head up by any librarians was a bit worrisome. It is possible that the books would deteriorate and get to brittle, and it is possible that an earthquake or fire could destroy them. But what I find the most troubling is that in such a remote storage spot they would be impossible to peruse. I acknowledge that making scans of our original works in important, and a way of saving our past and culture. But what if we have a future disaster cuts back electricity use? Then, we will all be looking for books again! Scanning books and counting on electronic devices makes the assumption that we will always have easy access to power. It is hard not to let your imagination go wild when you picture all the books of the world stashed away in big storage units under the earth!Check out http://blog.archive.org/2011/06/06/why-preserve-books-the-new-physical-archive-of-the-internet-archive/
ReplyDeleteInteresting post!
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