Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record - 60 min.

This award-winning documentary tells the unforgettable story of the deterioration and destruction of our world’s intellectual heritage and the global crisis in preserving library materials. Sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources. Millions of pages of paper in books, photographs, drawings and maps are disintegrating and turning to dust. This remarkable film provides a comprehensive assessment of the worldwide situation, demonstrates methods of restoration and preservation and suggests ways to prevent new documents from facing ultimate destruction.

A Film by Terry Sanders Narrated by Robert MacNeil 33 & 58 Minute Versions

"Slow Fires makes vivid a quiet disaster that endangers our human heritage – the slow disintegration of the printed record of humanity. Attention must be paid. Anyone who has seen the film will pay attention." - Sidney Verba, Director, Harvard University Library

"What is endangered here if any book rots from within is a piece of the history of the human race." - Robert MacNeil, Narrator