In one of our earliest posts to this blog we suggested that
as institutional libraries around the world fall prey to economic woes and neglect benign or otherwise, private libraries may well be the last best hope for survival of ideas of all types. The more private libraries, the greater (hopefully) the diversity of ideas that survive. And the harder it is to wipe 'em all out.
As an (oft times poor) student of history, we had in mind the numerous attempts that have been made over the centuries to wipe out "unapproved" ideas--either by censoring what gets published or, failing that, by simply destroying anything that slips through. Numerous books outlining humankind's penchant for this sort of behavior have been published over the years:
Despite the fact that battles against censorship have engaged a long and distinguished cast of combatants, humankind seems to have to continually re-learn the lessons of centuries past:
In a sobering bit of irony, folks seeking to make "the world's knowledge" available electronically may unwittingly be laying the foundation for the most virulent censorship of all.
The printed book has long been the best insurance humankind has yet devised for the survival and widespread dispersion of ideas of all types. Electronic books offer far fewer assurances in this regard--one has only to consider the threats to survivability and dispersion posed by draconian digital rights management, widespread failure to migrate data stored on older electronic media to newer electronic media, or a terrorist's well-placed EPT (electromagnetic pulse transmission). It's enough to make one redouble one's efforts to collect printed books as expeditiously as finances permit....
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