The Soul of a Library

Summary by Krater

An exploration of Borges' Library of Babel, the reality of massive digital archiving like Google Books, and the human cost of protecting rare manuscript collections in places like Timbuktu, comparing fictional libraries to the real ones that preserve our history.

From the video

Answers: What do fictional and real-life massive libraries reveal about human knowledge and preservation?

• Library of Babel
• Digital book archiving
• Timbuktu manuscripts preservation
• Dark Souls archives lore
• Anthropodermic bibliopegy

What it concludes

• Google's mass book scanning project ultimately shelved its physical archiving efforts due to copyright concerns, leaving millions of scanned pages inaccessible.
• The destruction of the Library of Alexandria has been greatly exaggerated and mythologized in history.
• Timbuktu's manuscript collections were successfully saved from destruction during the 2013 occupation through the clandestine efforts of locals smuggling them in trunks.
• Libraries serve not just to store day-to-day knowledge, but as a way of preserving who we are and who we could be.