In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books

[SeaKing]

In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books
By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: March 3, 2012, New York Times

"RICHMOND, Calif. — In a wooden warehouse in this industrial suburb, the 20th century is being stored in case of digital disaster.
The Physical Archive of the Internet Archive hopes to eventually collect 10 million items, and it has started taking in films as well.

Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive.

Forty-foot shipping containers stacked two by two are stuffed with the most enduring, as well as some of the most forgettable, books of the era. Every week, 20,000 new volumes arrive, many of them donations from libraries and universities thrilled to unload material that has no place in the Internet Age..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/te...books.html?hpw

I have to admit, I am taken aback. I don't know what to think. To laugh. To admire. To just be astonished.

[xg4bx]

every project has its naysayers. 'oh well massive loss of digital data is unlikely'....until it actually happens through either manmade or natural means. we live in a fairly unpredictable universe.

its never stupid to have back-ups like this. better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. he's spending less to attempt to archive all knowledge than we spend on one missile.

[Giggleton]

I've personally benefited quite a bit from the internet archive. Access to all that has been, is, or will ever be uploaded!!!!!

I'll be a naysayer, for an entirely different reason: this strikes me as placing all of your eggs in one basket. They are effectively a 21st century Library of Alexandria. As such, they are an extremely convenient target for the ignorant or an incredibly vulnerable victim of nature.

[howyoudoin]

Brewster Kahle, the most diabolically clever hoarder of all time?

[Venus]

Is any archive truly safe or enduring? Isn't Richmond in the Hayward Fault Zone?

[Apache]

In a wooden warehouse

Doesn't it seem strange that they would store containers of books in a wooden warehouse?
Apache

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Apache

Doesn't it seem strange that they would store containers of books in a wooden warehouse?
Apache

Well, they're furthermore stored inside shipping containers. Those things are made out of steel, and probably have a layer of insulation sprayed inside.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by teh603

Well, they're furthermore stored inside shipping containers. Those things are made out of steel, and probably have a layer of insulation sprayed inside.

Unless they are built to withstand a minimum of 1100F the books will still be destroyed. And most shipping containers are not insulated to prevent damage from high heat.
Apache

[calibrated]

I love the Internet Archive and appreciate what Brewster Kahle is trying to do, but I think if I was my project, I wouldn't use a wooden building in the San Francisco Bay area (earthquakes, fires, etc.). And as they reference in the article, there's already the Library of Congress...not to mention the British Library.

Seems a bit quixotic to me.

[Ninjalawyer]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I'll be a naysayer, for an entirely different reason: this strikes me as placing all of your eggs in one basket. They are effectively a 21st century Library of Alexandria. As such, they are an extremely convenient target for the ignorant or an incredibly vulnerable victim of nature.

Well, I guess it's nice to have one backup rather than no backups. Like you said though, the implementation could use a little work.

[QuantumIguana]

There are works that we only have today because they were buried many centuries ago. I would treat them more like a time capsule and bury the containers.

[SensualPoet]

The Dead Sea Scrolls is an example of "only one back-up made".

The entire 1890 US federal census was destroyed in a fire at the turn of the century -- no back-up, all records lost forever in one blaze.

There is value in this back-up project. It is why all archives are created: to have access "in perpetuity" to the stuff of the past. The electrons are important, but so if the ability to handle the things, quite apart from the data content.

[howyoudoin]

This is why torrents are good. They create multiple backups of data

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

This is why torrents are good. They create multiple backups of data

Torrents do not create multiple backups of data, torrent users do. Since the article claims that many of the books being crammed into this warehouse have not been used in decades, it is unlikely that anyone would grab those books as a torrent.