Whilst the institution remains open to the public and its collection of manuscripts and rare books remain securely archived and conserved, the total collapse of the British Library’s digital infrastructure that made its entire catalogue freely accessible to all worldwide following a malicious cyberattack on Halloween is almost as grave as loosing the originals. A ransomware gang, auctioning off personal data of patrons and staff alike, has rendered its services largely unavailable even for those readers and scholars geographically close enough to visit in person and makes potential and present patrons reflect on nature of this sort of institution and how theft of connection is as bad as theft or destruction of knowledge itself.
synchronoptica
one year ago: A Christmas Carol plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: celebrating two decades of The Lord of the Rings, a literary clock plus more links to enjoy
three years ago: Dalรญ holiday cards, more links worth revisiting plus an angel on Mars
four years ago: Trump impeached, Clinton impeached (1998) plus map haikus
five years ago: even more links, French carols, sonic shades plus Trump withdraws from Syria
