Preserving Knowledge for Future Generation - Essay Example

Preserving Knowledge for Future Generation Disasters have been common occurrences all round the world, usually causing damage to property and other resources. These range from natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and flooding among others. In addition, man made incidences resulting from accidents or intent have resulted to insurmountable loss of knowledge in use or archived in some source. Aspects such as wars and fires have destroyed volumes of documents, books, knowledgeable personalities and libraries hence creating a missing link of information and knowledge. One of the major treasures that have been destroyed in the process of these disasters is intellectual property and information. Information impacts knowledge to the society and carries a lot of power especially given its capability to influence generations as well as providing continuity in a society. In an attempt to secure knowledge, the current generation has widely advanced and used technology to ensure that information of whichever form is preserved and retrieved when required. Electronic sources are now being used to store whatever knowledge is available. However, the information already lost remains irretrievable thereby creating an inconsistency of knowledge over generations. Quite a big chunk of the historic knowledge has been lost through disasters making us deficient of it and unable to decipher what it was all about. Library destruction has been an issue that has denied the current society of the need to link modernity with some historic knowledge. These destructions have been under the influence of human intents based on certain motivations or just by accident. Human-made activities make the bulk of the destroyed books and other knowledge carrying materials. There are key incidences in history that have led to massive destruction of knowledge. Firstly, the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the ancient Egypt is one of the landmark knowledge losses in the early history. It is reported that the library contained a collection of many works to the extent of attracting the earlier scholars who are said to have converted the library to be their study base. Many papyrus scrolls and books not only had massive information about the early culture but also knowledge based on religion, philosophy, and economics among other areas. Being one of the early centers of civilization and the proximity with Rome and Greece provided a perfect location knowledge sharing and acquisition. It is not clear whether the library was destroyed by fire or several destructive events but it was completely ruined with all the knowledge it carried. Closely related to it was the Library of the Serapeum that became the alternative of the early scholars after the one in Alexandria was destroyed. This library was too destroyed by burning and looting of the resources thereof. Some reports have indicated that the destruction of the library was catalyzed by the order given by Theodosius I, making the library to be burnt to ashes. This led to destruction of the books and scrolls that had remained from the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. The cultural knowledge was the main victim of the two incidences in early Egypt. Another ancient incidence that caused destruction of a wealth of resourceful information is the destruction of Nalanda in India around 1193 AD. Nalanda was one the revered religious learning centers in India; highly regarded for the position that it had given Buddhism. It had wealth of knowledge contained in books that attracted people from as far as China, Persia, Greece and Tibet. The great library was destroyed in a war by Muslim army from Turkey, they set fire on it and is reported to have destroyed all the documents and books contained therein. The library was so big that it burnt for almost three months. Apart from the loss of the knowledge that was present in the library resources, the culture as well as Buddhism was adversely affected. In addition, religious affiliated information was hugely destroyed in Granada around 1499 AD when the Madrassah Library was invaded by armed troops that were commanded by Cardinal Cisneros. The books were taken from the library to a public place where they were burnt to flames. These ancient occurrences form a tip of iceberg of the massive information that has been lost in the ancient history. Other outstanding incidences includes the destruction of the Glasney College in England, Welsh Raglan Library, Imperial library of Constantinople and Library of al-Hakam II among others that have been documented while others have no documentation. Despite the developments in disaster preparedness and management in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, there have been incidences that have resulted to loss of worthy knowledge. A spectacular incident in the American history was the destruction of the Library of Congress by the British Army soldiers in the War that occurred in 1812. The troops put ablaze the U. S Capitol, which included the library that had been established in 1800 to facilitate research by the congressional representatives. This incidence led to destruction of most of the essential books relating to American issues and other historic, social, political and economic issues. It prompted Thomas Jefferson to donate his personal library for the sake of the Congress. During the American Civil War, the Union troops destroyed volumes of books, publications and other documents in the University of Alabama library. Another incidence of war, this time round in Belgium caused a great loss of knowledge from the destruction of the Catholic University of Leuven’s library. This was done by the German troops who put ablaze the city of Leuven to contain the resistance by the Belgians. In Dublin, Ireland, the Public Records Office was burnt to ashes in 1922 leading to loss of vital government information. Knowledge that has been in the process of development has been destroyed too. An event that demoralized researchers and raised the attention of the research community took place in Berlin at the Institut fur Sexualwissenschaft. Here, the Deutsche Studentenschaft attached the institute looted and destroyed all the research information in place including the archives and other library resources. In China, the effects of World War II was evident when the Japanese forces destroyed their libraries such as University Nan-k’ai, Institute of Technology of He-pei, University Kuang Hua in Shanghai, and the National University of Tsing hua, Peking among others. The resultant was destruction of very instrumental information from the libraries. The same war led to the destruction of other knowledge centers, including the National Library of Serbia. Wars have been the major contributor of the destruction of knowledge contained in books and other archival sources. In the early 1990’s, the Bosnian Serb armies destroyed the Oriental Institute’s Library and the National and University Library of Bosnia during the period that the troops had taken siege of Sarajevo. The twenty first century has its input in destruction of essential knowledge. During the 2003 Iraq War, unknown assailants torched a number of its libraries resulting to massive destruction of library resources. Resources in the Egyptian scientific Institute and the Malian Ahmed Baba Institutes have been reported to be destroyed in the near past. Natural disasters have also taken toll on the destruction of knowledge. An earthquake and the subsequent fires adversely destroyed resources in Japan’s Imperial University Library, Max Muller Library, Hoshino Library and Nishimura Library. It was reported that over 70,000 volumes were destroyed. Another earthquake occurred around 2004 in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia and Malaysia destroying a lot of libraries and archived resources. All these incidences point to massive loss of knowledge across the generations. The address by President Franklin Roosevelt to the Congress on 6th of January 1941 is one of the documents that I would like to preserve for the future generations. In his address, the president puts America into perspective by analyzing the historic events, the prevailing situations and predicts the future in an attempt to have freedom and prosperity prevail. Looking back at what he was talking about, one is capable of appreciating his concerns. The World War II had just started and there was need for America to be fully armed and well protected from enemies. He presented the speech at a time when there was a challenge for Americans for Americans from external aggression. His speech was to promote unity between the government and the congress in order to ensure that the Congress supports the government policies under implementation. Roosevelt demonstrates his government’s commitment to not only advance in warfare but also to take care of the general public. He puts into perspective the need for economic development as a catalyst to America’s prosperity. In the speech, the president woes the Congress to support his government plans that are geared towards giving support to America’s threatened allies and neighbors. He further advocates for preservation of human dignity by abiding to the human rights across the world (Roosevelt 1-8). Drawing from the views that are raised in the speech, it is very clear that the information presented by Roosevelt was not only beneficial to the American society at that time but it remains relevant for the public, policy makers, diplomats and citizens among others. It promotes patriotism and helps the Americans connect with their past. I would desire that the generations to come understand what are the issues that have confronted their country. At this period, America rose to become a superpower. Works Cited Roosevelt, Franklin. State of Union Address, The Four Freedoms. 6 Jan, 1941. Web 19 Dec 2013. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm UNESCO. Lost Memory- Libraries and Archives Destroyed in the Twentieth Century. 1996. Web 19 Dec 2013. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/administ/pdf/LOSTMEMO.PDF Read More