The New Temple of Knowledge : Towards A Universal Digital Library

The temple of knowledge is a millennium old building, in fact as old as history, which is rebuilt each day. It is formed by the thought, memory and imagination of people. It is a great collective work, starting from walls of rock, clay tablets, manuscripts and papers. It has been maintained by monasteries, universities, scientific societies peopled by all sorts of daring and tenacious individuals, authors, scholars, researchers and librarians. Until now, this temple has managed to survive savagery and horror in the refuge of our archives and libraries. From now on, this temple is going to be in the air, based on intangible ones and zeros. In a sense, these are not grounded - not anywhere. But they nevertheless incubate the greatest transformation in history: a revolution carried in silence, but long in consequences that will transform our habits of reading and writing, and ultimately our ways of knowing.