An important function of libraries is to protect and maintain information for future generations. While digital materials have their own vulnerabilities, the inherent danger of keeping the world’s knowledge on a flammable media like paper is obvious. Many people believe that since there is so much information on the internet these days, everything that can be has been scanned, uploaded, and made available with a quick Google search.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The recent fire at a Russian scientific library in January was a startling reminder that even in this digital age, the information is still at risk. Over the years, there have been several fires in libraries that destroyed entire collections that can never be replaced.
Most people have heard of the Library Of Alexandria and maybe have some vague idea that it was real and burned down at some point in history. The exact nature of the library, its’ collections and destruction are debated since surviving historical records from that time are fragmented. From it’s beginnings around 283 BCE, the library is thought to have collected as much information as possible. Legend has it that all boats coming into the harbor at Alexandria were searched for books and if any were found, they were copied and added to the collection. Of course, accounts of what was lost with the library differ, but there were almost certainly great losses of mathematics, drama, poetry, ancient languages…the list goes on and on (and so do the arguing historians).
The Library of Congress has been victim to several fires in its history. Much of the original collection was destroyed by British troops in 1814. To get the library back up and running, Thomas Jefferson sold his private collection to Congress. A small fire in 1825 was controlled before too much damage had been done to the collection, but in 1851 a fire on Christmas Eve destroyed approximately 35,000 volumes in the library’s collection, almost two-thirds of their holdings and Jefferson’s original collection. The library is still working to replace all those volumes from Jefferson’s collection.
The fire at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences RAN, INION last month consumed approximately 15% to 20% of the total collection. It’s only been a few days, so the scope of the damage is difficult to assess. It is believed that while the rare books and manuscripts section of library has been spared, the library lost much of it’s foreign language collection, reference materials, scientific reports, the only collection of UN and UNESCO documents in Russia, as well as about one-third of it’s 19th and 20th century Slavic collection. Because the majority of the collection had not yet been digitized, many of these losses are final. The library’s servers were also damaged in the fire.
Special thanks to Marina Rosenfield for her Russian language translation and research.