Paper That Outlasts the Cloud: The Urgent Case for Protecting Rare Printed Artifacts Like Jikji
In an era when entire libraries can be stored on a thumb drive and centuries-old texts can be viewed on a smartphone, it may seem that the physical preservation of rare manuscripts has become less urgent. This view is dangerously mistaken — and the story of Jikji, the world's oldest surviving metal-type printed book, offers one of the most compelling arguments for why tangible heritage still demands our most serious attention.