This morning, I received an email from T160K: Timbuktu Libraries in Exile. Attached were a couple of photos of the archival book box that I supported, allowing the organizers to save manuscripts from the ancient city.

My archival box inscription: “For future generations of knowledge seekers, may you find the enlightenment you seek.”

One photo was of the outside of the book box, with the dedication that I submitted.

The other photo was of the inside of the book box, which had the manuscript that will be preserved in it.

Timbuktu is an ancient city of the Mali Empire in West Africa. T160K is an international effort to rescue and protect the information treasures of Timbuktu until they can be returned to the ancient city. To learn more about T160K, please visit their webpages and the Timbuktu Libraries in Exile Indiegogo page.

This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I thought to help build a library in a developing nation. And, yes, I’m still going to look for ways to help build a library somewhere else in the world. But T160K is an awesome, worthwhile project that means a great deal to the whole of human knowledge. Please consider contributing.

The manuscript inside the archival book box I helped fund.

Where is Timbuktu? In Mali, a country in West Africa. Image from the Atlanta Blackstar.