At this point I'm really running off the rails of what this blog is dedicated to, yet I couldn't pass over this story about historic preservation efforts in Israel. Most of the efforts currently surround cataloging and preserving the British Mandate Antiquities Department, which is incredibly extensive. A digitization process will follow.
Preservation fascinates me, mostly because I became heavily involved with the subject when I was a member of my local historical commission. The amount of precision, work, and expense that is required to preserve historic documents is astounding. In Sandwich, MA, a huge chunk of our documents were stored in an old, decrepit bank vault underground, when they required a facility with heavy ventilation, boxes, and new shelving units. The digitization process is still ongoing, and only came after a huge cataloging effort across five or six repositories throughout town. I'm greatly heartened that Israel is taking this on, even in the midst of recent tensions.
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