World spec'mode

Universal Library

It is now 2045, and it has already been five years since UNESCO created the International Heritage Index (IIP). The majority of UN member states use this standardized coding system to facilitate the tracking of their heritage sites within a given territory. In the Paris region, UNESCO has an office dedicated specifically to maintaining a massive database containing all the codes assigned to every single item identified worldwide (web pages, audio recordings, manuscripts, films, objects, realia, archaeological sites, buildings, etc.) by public—and, in some cases, private—heritage institutions. This “universal” database also stores the metadata associated with these items—regardless of their nature—and occasionally, if the item is in the public domain, a digital copy of the item is also included. Until now, this database has primarily served to assist various organizations dedicated to preservation in cataloging heritage, as well as in classifying it (particularly in terms of rarity or historical significance) in order to identify items that should be digitized first. However, following the 2045 Florence Convention, nearly all nations of the world decided to step up their efforts. Thanks to an appropriate legal framework and the latest innovations in information storage, a new database has been launched near Geneva, aptly named the Universal Library. The Universal Library consists, quite simply, of a type of computer server capable of storing all digital copies of items that have been digitized, as well as meticulously tracking them worldwide. For a long time, it was not possible to create a truly global library capable of storing the entirety of world literature in a single location, despite all the efforts of the ancients in Alexandria or Pergamon. But now that it is technically feasible to do so thanks to digital technology and molecular-level information storage, the dream of a truly universal library is becoming a reality. As an added benefit, this library also makes it possible to preserve museum collections as well as all kinds of intangible or immovable items—not just traditional written formats. It should be noted that, in order to ensure very long-term preservation and to avoid conflicts with various jurisdictions regarding copyright and heritage conservation, the Universal Library is not accessible to the general public, even online. It is really just a last-resort repository for global culture, similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and not a library or even an archive in the strict sense of the term. Furthermore, it is not actually a single location but four, since the contents of the Universal Library are distributed among Switzerland, Costa Rica, Mongolia, and Turkmenistan, based on the affinities of the various countries participating in the project. However, the Geneva branch oversees all the others and could eventually centralize the entire content of the other libraries, should a more favorable geopolitical climate arise.