Great collections have always been vulnerable, but recent disasters are fueling a race to digitize and preserve cultural relics.  It is well known that in ancient times, the famous library in Alexandria burned down resulting in the loss of its irreplaceable collection. But cultural relics are just as vulnerable today, perhaps more so in an age of explosives, bulldozers, and large scale demolitions. Artifacts in manuscript rich Afghanistan and Iraq have been put at risk. But even in modern developed countries, archives are not safe. Recently an earthquake in Italy and a collapse in Cologne damaged European collections. Narrative artifacts exist not just in paper or parchment, but many other forms such as oracle bones from ancient China, an eight thousand year old rock painting from Africa, and papyrus fragments that were stuffed inside a mummified crocodile. Many items were once unreadable -- charred by fire, damaged by chemicals, perhaps too fragile to unroll. New technologies now make it possible to decipher them. For example, Papyrus found in a garbage dump in Egypt can now be read and digitized by capturing high resolution digital images in fourteen different light wavelengths. Technologies that were developed for different purposes but are now used to recover ancient texts include x-rays, CAT scans, and multispectral imaging, implemented by NASA to photograph objects through clouds. Even with the aid of advanced technologies, digitizing the relics is still a laborious, expensive, lengthy project, that requires a lot of manpower.  But it is only one part of the great work. Locating and accessing these documents is also a difficult, time consuming task, carried out by dedicated individuals. In this race to retrieve items, a Benedictine monk from Minnesota is responsible for over 16,000 finds, accomplished by scouring libraries in manuscript rich areas such as Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Read more about this fascinating subject and find links to online collections in The next Age of Discovery, appearing in the Wall Street Journal.