Monday, March 31, 2014

Time Travel


If I was to travel back in time to tell people about the future of books I would want to explain the importance of proper preservation and conservation. Countless collections have been lost from natural disasters and war in ancient and medieval times and if by going back in time could help change that it would be pretty great.  My problem, however, is trying to figure out what time period I would go back to.

Each era has individual and unique circumstances to book loss and the impact it has had on the history of the book. After thinking about it for a couple of days I decided the time period I would choose to go back to is the 3rd century in Alexandria Egypt. It was in this time that the Royal Library of Alexandria was constructed. This library is well known as a symbol of the “destruction of cultural knowledge” because the library endured several fires and acts of destruction over many years.

If I could go back to this time I would explain the importance of protecting the type of literature within the library from natural disasters as well as war and why it is essential for the people of the time to focus on ways to ensure the safety of books. By explaining the importance of conservation and preservation it could potentially have an impact on the amount of books that could be saved over the years leading up until the 21st century.

And here is a little video of Carl Sagan briefly discussing the library: 


1 comment:

  1. Hey Jade, I agree and think that if I could go I'd teach preservation and conservation. I like the Frailty of Knowledge video, I've never seen it before. It's a good survey of the destruction of libraries, which is what I'm focusing on for my final paper.

    In my research I came across a Smithsonian article called, The Top 10 Books Lost to Time. It's a quick and interesting read. I'm not sure if I can make a link in the comment box, but here is the url: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-top-10-books-lost-to-time-83373197/?page=2

    Some of those books I didn't even know existed. But I'd definitely like to read all them. Although perhaps it's the fact that I can't read them that makes me want to.

    ReplyDelete