“Officials at the Library of Congress say the irradiation of government mail is damaging some items intended for the library’s collections.”
—Library Journal item (registration required)
TeleRead angle: The irradiation is a protective measure required by the anthrax threat to the Capitol, with which LOC share a ventilation system. What about the dirty-nuke threat? Time for a digital backup of the Library of Congress? And maybe more reliance on digital books–with a TeleRead-style library and systematic backups at many locations? Book preservation is too important to be left to publishers or even James Billington.