03 February 2009

Connect the dots, library security, the silk road

It seems as though I need a library security expert. The Scheide has declined to offer any assistance because of security concerns. The only reason that the Scheide is of particular interest is because that is where the only American Bamberg is located. This will require some creative thinking and a library security resource.

The Scheide Bamberg was originally in the Benedictine convent in Wurzburg which was acquired 200 years ago by Earl Spencer. Thence to Scheide.

My rare books security system for a library would include a secure locking system, of course. Whenever the alarm is triggered, the doors would seal and lock until released after the environment is secure. The room would then be flooded with an inert, non-flamable gas, replacing all the oxygen in the room (argon?). Of course, that means that all humans in the room die. SO, there are breathing apparati at stations in the room. You have to get into a mask before all the air is pumped out. Since this is so radical, I suggest it only for the vault, where the most valuable documents are kept. For individual documents that are on display, a steel case needs to drop over them and seal them up. Yeah, easy, right?

I need to figure out how to get the order of connect the dots figured out. There is always the chance that they could be in alphabetical order. Start with the dot on A and progress to the dot on B. Problem is that all the letters won't be in the rubric and there is a predominance of "T," or some single letter.

The next thing is that the position of the nick on the character could indicate the direction to the next nick in the order. That might work. No one who would normally see the rubric would think twice about seeing nicked letters or imperfect type since it is not meant ot be read or published, but only to be copied in the order presented to the blank spaces. That seems like the most likely at the moment.

The Silk Road ran from Istanbul (Constantinople) through Turkey & Kurdistan, then Iran, and on. The land route fell into disuse in the 1400s with the closing of China and the Ottoman invasion. It would be quite natural to have the map be of the Silk Road.

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