Cyberwar

I teach a course on preservation and conservation in St. Catherine University's MLIS program. We spend a part of the semester talking about disaster plans and emergency preparedness. This new post on the ACRLog is something I'll need to keep in mind as I tweak my syllabus for the coming fall.

So, two somewhat "downer" posts today about the digital world: blogs being swept away and now the need in preparing for cyberwar. I think this does need serious attention. I'm beginning to feel in my bones that our next Pearl Harbor -- 9/11 -- will be such an attack. I probably need to amass more actual data (something Sherlock Holmes would have done) before making any kind of pronouncement. But think about it for just a moment. What could you do (or not do) in the course of a day if everything was "down." What kind of disruptions would we face. I'm not losing sleep over the issue, but it causes a quiver when contemplated.

Reading Text in Rolled Documents

For the past three years, in the course of my teaching conservation and preservation at St. Kate's, I've mentioned the challenge of reading texts hidden in rolled or multi-layered objects such as scrolls. Kevin Driedger noted the following video on his blog and I thought I'd share it here as well. It is exciting to think about the texts that may come to light through the process described in this video. Enjoy!