I hope they were well insured and continue their work.
Edit: I should point out they are a charitable org and could always use support -
What help could we use?
- Funding. Your donations will help us rebuild the scanning capabilities in books, microfilm, and movies.
This is what happens when you try to scan and digitize Fahrenheit 451! 
(too soon?)
Seriously though, archive.org is awesome, i hope they can recover quickly.
O please really $600,000 , A disposable digital camera is not worth that much
destroyed the book, film and microfilm scanning center
Who knows what kind of specialized gear they had for scanning in film and microfilm properly. The post says âhigh end digitization equipmentâ.
âNo data has been lost.â
hooray for multiple copies!
ThatâsâŚodd.
I drove by that building yesterday. Pulled over and took pictures (with my new Fuji X-10). A building I have driven by a thousand times without giving it a second thought. AndâŚIâm a SF fireman.
Hope they get back on their feet quickly.
To say this is terrible would be an understatement. I only hope that no original documents were lost in the blaze.
Have they yet ruled out arson?
Proof that no matter how much the Internet is seen as some sort of lofty cyber-construction floating in space, it is still subject to the elements, including fire - I havenât uploaded to or visited Archive.Org in years, but this is obviously a sad loss.
Actually the destroyed stuff in question is not the cyber construction. Itâs the physical equipment used to turn physical objects into part of that cyber construction.
The cyber construction is still safe. Itâs physical objects related to scanning physical objects that were destroyed.
So⌠no.
Uh-oh⌠sounds like you have strayed in to Stephen King territory.
âseeking scanning workâ to keep people employed⌠Look, I know this is small potatoes - but could they offer scanning / digitization of personal stuff at discounted rates? Assuming it wouldnât go into the Internet Archive, I think some people might pay to have scads of old photos or slides scanned and converted but they donât want the 25 annual versions of Uncle Bob with the Christmas ornament earrings to become and Internet meme.
Or Bradbury. âFire-manâ indeed.
Exactly! My first thought was hoping nothing irreplaceable (document-wise) was burned up.
Iâd be interested in knowing what their scanning setup was like. Obviously, they had the ability to scan a lot, and very quickly.
Yeah, surely there were some original documents there. What a nightmare.
About that Rick Prelinger guy: if you havenât seen this, you have to check it out. If you live in San Francisco, as I, alas, no longer do, keep an eye peeled for one of his âLost Landscapes of San Franciscoâ events, usually at the Castro.
My first thought was of flammable celluoid film stock, but I would think professional archivists would know how to handle that stuff.
Are you one of these firemen?
The difference between your âdisposable digital cameraâ and the setup needed to quickly and accurately process the digitization of multiple media formats is the difference between a cheezburger from MickeyDâs and a multicourse dining experience at Delmonicoâs.
Sorry if I missed the /sarcasm tag.
