Libraries are no longer “shrines to knowledge” so much as interconnected, evolving networks linking vast warehouses of information to patrons. So runs the thesis of a short documentary “Cold Storage,” now available to watch on Vimeo, about the many types of media and experiences to be had in and around the Harvard Depository, including databases, traditional print media, and even air conditioning. From provocations and asides on information theory to the human “book pickers” who operate within the facility, these themes all follow from the complex infrastructural architecture required to keep the operation humming.
More than nine million items reside in the Harvard Depository, a remarkable 27,000-square-foot structure that regulates climate and otherwise physically protects delicate media, organized by size in boxes controlled even for acidity. A version of the depository has been in existence since 1986, though the history of off-site storage at Harvard dates back to 1902.
A still from “Cold Storage” of the Harvard depository
Although the number of physical books requested and retrieved is declining, the collection continues to grow in size thanks to digital contributions, available to an audience increasing in size and breadth. To that point, the doc was launched concurrently with the Icons of Knowledge exhibition by Daniel Rauchwerger and Noah Dvir, on view at Harvard GSD for two more weeks, until March 22.
It so happens that the New Yorker recently published Jill Lepore’s fascinating look at Internet Archives, which surveys contemporary forms of data storage as well as commenting on other ways that technology is democratizing knowledge: “The Library of Alexandria was open only to the learned; the Internet Archive is open to everyone.” Everyone with Internet access, that is.
The Burning of the Library at Alexandria in 391 AD, illustration from Hutchinsons History of the Nations, c. 1910
The 1956 documentary, All the World’s Memory, by Alain Resnais, presents the French National Library as “a cathedral consecrated to the glories of the book,” according to the creators of “Cold Storage.” Despite the digital revolution, offsite storehouses remain to preserve the holdings of old-school browsing libraries. The sprawling spaces and lofty shelves endure as a physical testament to the vast expanse of scholarly work they contain.
The movie is a quietly compelling illustration of the interaction of the built environment with an increasingly virtual world of information. Check out the interactive documentary site at ColdStorageDoc.com.