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

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

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.

You need a sense of humour transplant.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by 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.

Everyone is offering bits of advice and thought.

Upon further thought myself, I wish the project had been started in a "dry" cave somewhere. "Dry" to protect the books. A dry cave in a rocky mountain in an arid land. Actually I have visited a place like that. They stored scrolls in pots for over a thousand years.

We have those (caves, tunnels, mines) in South West America.

[Apache]

One of the best places would be in a salt mine.
Apache

[JoeD]

Perhaps it's in such a building as it's as far as their budget will go?

[Belfaborac]

Yeah, I rather think JoeD has nailed it. Sure, buying an old salt mine and kitting it out, or building a climate-controlled, quake-proofed concrete bunker would be nice, but I'm betting the warehouse and shipping containers cost a bit less. Undoubtedly it also to a great degree negates the objective of storing the content safely, especially considering the location in which it is located.

Intent: laudable

Implementation: questionable, to the point of negating any potential benefit.

[murraypaul]

Is the Library of Congress the only copyright library in the US?

[MV64]

I think this is great. Honestly, I don't see how it's feasible to house all that for very long, the costs must be astronomical for something that makes no money. Honestly I'm not too concerned about about losing things, though. Books are widespread enough that they're not going to disappear. After all, we have books left from thousands of years ago.

Sure some stuff will be lost, but the one thing you learn as a collector or a historian is that you can't preserve EVERYTHING. You have to make some judgment calls on what is valuable.

But honestly, libraries will remain, and even if they close down their books will be sold at book sales and will remain in the hands of people all over the world. I honestly just don't see the concern about digitizing things. New file formats emerge but there's always a way to convert old files it seems. What falls through the cracks from digitizing stands a decent shot of surviving in physical format through coincidence that I'm not sure stockpiles are needed.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by MV64

Sure some stuff will be lost, but the one thing you learn as a collector or a historian is that you can't preserve EVERYTHING. You have to make some judgment calls on what is valuable.

Ah but what is valuable? I imagine if someone were to have asked someone back in the late 19th century they might not have offered names like Dickens, Twain, Wells and Stevenson. Some books survive because they are popular not because a scholar thinks they will last. In fact scholars only come to appreciate a given author's works because they have survived where others that were contemporary to the author have faded into oblivion.

[carpetmojo]

I simply feel this is an admirable venture, and one which might possibly appeal to a very rich being with more cash than they know what to do with ?
Instead of, say, a soccer or football team ?
A small portion of their wealth could provide a perhaps safer storage situation...

But I reckon the Archive, and Brewster Kahle, are to be congratulated for at least doing something along these lines.

Now the project has been set in motion, they might get some support........

[spindlegirl]

I think it's a crazy idea, but if it floats their boat, so be it.

Not all words are worthy of the immortality we bestow on them....

[QuantumIguana]

I don't think it is a crazy idea, but it may not be a the best implementation. There's nothing crazy about preserving books. Rather than putting them in a warehouse, it would make more sense to seal them up in plastic containers and bury them. It would eliminate the need for maintenance. You could use the space for parkland, build a soccer field over the archive, for example. Perhaps not everything needs to be archived, but I would rather err on the side of protecting more than protecting less.

[cjr72]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I don't think it is a crazy idea, but it may not be a the best implementation. There's nothing crazy about preserving books. Rather than putting them in a warehouse, it would make more sense to seal them up in plastic containers and bury them. It would eliminate the need for maintenance. You could use the space for parkland, build a soccer field over the archive, for example. Perhaps not everything needs to be archived, but I would rather err on the side of protecting more than protecting less.

I hear the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has a vacancy.

[cu_cannon]

If you are interested in some really long term storage take a look at the Rosetta project.

rosettaproject.org