PRESERVING A PHYSICAL COPY OF EVERY BOOK.
The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by ClearEars, the comfortable earplug that dries and removes water trapped in the ears. ClearEars - better than drops, safe for kids. This is Charles Osgood.
Brewster Kahle loves books, although the technology that made his fortune now threatens the printed word as we known it.
But our CBS News colleague John Blackstone says Kahle is a man with a goal.
VO - John Blackstone, CBS News Correspondent
"In a warehouse near San Francisco, Brewster Kahle's goal is to store one copy of every book ever published. Each crate contains 40,000 books that universities and libraries around the country no longer want." (:13)
SOT - Brewster Kahle, The Internet Archive
"What should we do with it? Throw it away? No. So, we started developing the technology for very inexpensive deep storage." (:07)
( NAT / Door Slam )
More after this...
((( BREAK )))
As John Blackstone tells us, Brewster Kahle is obsessed with the idea of storing at least one physical copy of every book.
SOT - Brewster Kahle, with John Blackstone
"(Blackstone:) Why keep physical books? (Kahle) They've been how we've learned as a society." (:05)
VO - John Blackstone
"But before they go into deep storage, Kahle has every book scanned. His organization - The Internet Archive - has two million scanned books available online, with more added every day. It's one reason librarians send in their unwanted books." (:15)
SOT - Brewster Kahle, with John Blackstone
"(Blackstone:) Are they relieved to dump their books on you, if I can put it that way? (Kahle:) Librarians go into the field because they love books. And the idea of actually having them leave their library is something that tears every librarian's heart out." (:12)
As movable type and the printing press once turned scrolls and manuscripts into things of the past, some fear modern technology is doing that to the printed word as we've known it.
Says Kahle - looking wistfully at a bound volume...
SOT - Brewster Kahle
"Everything on a Kindle looks the same - but this book was meant for a very different experience, with a child on your lap ... Let's not forget where we came from, and how important the physical books, the physical reality, still is in our lives." (:12)
VO - John Blackstone
"For Brewster Kahle, the past is worth holding on to - (NAT of Closing Book) - literally." (:04)
NAT - Brewster Kahle
"I want to read that one..." (:01)
The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network. |
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