http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-secret-race-to-save-timbuktus-manuscripts/article6763747/
The above is an article I came across yesterday, about trying to save manuscripts in Timbuktoo while there
is fighting going on all around. My
mother and I made it to Timbukto, maybe four years ago, now? There were
little museum/libraries all over the town, where a family would charge
some small admission and let you come in and look at very very old
manuscripts under plexiglass displays. We went by the institute in this
article, too, and most miraculously, met a resident (student? professor?
scribe?) who gave us a mini tour of his favorite books before getting
back to the work of copying them. I didn't see the digitizing process,
only hand copying. Many of these papers have been hidden before- in
walls, underground, taken out to the dunes- and we were told over and
over that many had been forgotten, and were likely still encased in
mudbrick homes. Here's hoping that words win out.
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