The Library that wanted to be the storehouse for the memory of the world was not able to secure for us the memory of itself. All we know of it, all that remains of its vastness, its marbles and its scrolls, are its various raisons d’être.

Manguel, The Library at Night, page 27

Speaking, of course, on the Library of Alexandria. How many libraries have we lost already? How many more will we lose? Perhaps I should know better, but I have more confidence in the lifespans of the books on my shelves than I do of anything in Google’s vast repository.