To Doug Deal and All,

    While it is true that there are rare manuscripts in Arabic in the Sahara
and Sanscrit, Pali scrit, and other manuscripts written in other esoteric
languages on paper, banana leaves, not to mention coneiform on clay tablets.
But two things need to be observed about these rare speciments.  First, most
of the people in those areas do not have access to the documents.  Second,
all this material will ultimately be scanned and available on the Internet.
Thirdly, we had better hope that they do get scanned because the
repositories will almost certainly be destroyed in the wars and rebellions
that are rising in the Third World countryside.

Books have been designed for cool dry countries.  They rot in tropical
climes.  The Internet, much as it makes me uncomfortable, is a better medium
for research for most of the people on Earth.

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Douglas Deal" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 2:01 PM
Subject: the modern world of resources


> If we're adding West Virginia to this list, maybe we should take Mali off.
> Its major city Timbuktu has incredible old libraries of materials in
> Arabic, holdings that tell major parts of the world's history told nowhere
> else--not even on Google. See:
> http://www.sum.uio.no/research/mali/timbuktu/
>
> Douglas Deal
> Professor of History and Chair of History Department
> State University of New York at Oswego
> Oswego, NY 13126
> [log in to unmask]
> (315)-312-5632
>
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