#preservingknowledge

After my visit to several historic landmarks in Europe and special collections libraries both in the States and Europe, I have an appreciation for special collections and the people that take care of them. The movie “The Monuments Men” was very inspiring to me. It was so interesting to see how these soldiers and historians traveled so far to protect art work and other special items from museums in order to save them from the Nazis. 

This week, as I was browsing articles for our team blog project, I ran across this article on monks trying to save special, historic pieces from the Islamic State militants who are nearing their monastery. As people become displaced in this region, so do these collections. Now, thanks to the people and monks of this community, the collection has been moved and ultimately saved. This reminded me that there are good people in the world that are making brave choices that are potentially changing and preserving history. I immediately thought of the soldiers of World War II who fought so hard to save the art of Europe. Now, so many years later, people still care about preserving knowledge and history in the face of danger. These monks and people of this community deserve such a huge thank you!