
Libraries: Where the world’s memory is stored (2018) - Tomte
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180704-libraries-where-the-worlds-memory-is-stored
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throw0101a
Umberto Eco on memory at the then-newly opened Bibliotheca Alexandrina:

> _WE HAVE THREE TYPES OF MEMORY. The first one is organic, which is the
> memory made of flesh and blood and the one administrated by our brain. The
> second is mineral, and in this sense mankind has known two kinds of mineral
> memory: millennia ago, this was the memory represented by clay tablets and
> obelisks, pretty well known in this country, on which people carved their
> texts. However, this second type is also the electronic memory of today 's
> computers, based upon silicon. We have also known another kind of memory,
> the vegetal one, the one represented by the first papyruses, again well
> known in this country, and then on books, made of paper. Let me disregard
> the fact that at a certain moment the vellum of the first codices were of an
> organic origin, and the fact that the first paper was made with rugs and not
> with wood. Let me speak for the sake of simplicity of vegetal memory in
> order to designate books._

* [http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/bibliotheca-alexandrina-2003.ht...](http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/bibliotheca-alexandrina-2003.html)

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina)

He himself had quite the collection as well:

* [http://www.openculture.com/2017/03/watch-umberto-eco-walk-th...](http://www.openculture.com/2017/03/watch-umberto-eco-walk-through-his-immense-private-library.html)

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lsh
sounds like Umberto Eco is getting lost in his own definitions. A simple
analog/digital distinction works just as well.

If you're interested there is a really excellent book on permanent digital
memory called "Delete"

[https://www.bookdepository.com/Delete-Viktor-Mayer-
Schonberg...](https://www.bookdepository.com/Delete-Viktor-Mayer-
Schonberger/9780691150369)

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wolfgke
A lot of the world's memory is also stored in shadow libraries such as Library
Genesis and sci-hub.

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vr46
Pretty pictures but perhaps too much focus on historical art and religion and
not enough on working, utilitarian libraries?

