Libraries exist to preserve the thoughts and deeds that no one else has
time for anymore, to collect items that might not be used for another
ten, fifty, one hundred years -- if ever. It is this last uncertainty
that makes libraries the most heroic of human creations.
-- Paul Collins. Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People
Who Didn't Change the World. New York: Picador, 2001. p.285-286.