About Us

Our Foundation is a non-profit organization created to preserve the knowledge of mankind. It originated in the year 02007 and has as it's purpose the preservation of books that would allow the continuation - or rebuilding - of civilization.

It was inspired by the late Dr. Isaac Asimov, author of the Hugo Award winning “Foundation Trilogy”, a series of books about how a group of scientists attempted to preserve the collected knowledge of mankind. They did this to insure that if any disaster or collapse took place, that the time needed for rebuilding would be that much shorter, because we would not have to start over in learning everything.

As Dr. Asimov once observed, “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”

We at The Encyclopedia Foundation believe those words, and by our actions are working to realize the dream of preserving the knowledge and literature of all mankind for thousands of years to come. We believe that in the very concept of the Library of Alexandria, one can see that this is an age old dream.

Then, as now, people were trying to preserve the incredibly hard won knowledge of the ages, so that human progress could be one of ever greater growth, and not an endless re-discovering of the same things each century or millenium. This was the dream during the era of the Library of Alexandria, this was the dream of Dr. Asimov in far flung future speculations, and this is the dream that we are making a reality - today!

Our Mission:

The mission of The Encyclopedia Foundation is as stated in our By Laws, and is an un-amendable absolute:

The paramount goal of the corporation is to preserve the knowledge of mankind in any mediums that shall last at least 10,000 years, or as long as is practically possible within the limits of current technology and Foundation resources.

To this end, the corporation shall solicit donations, acquire land and structures, erect and maintain structures, storehouse books in any and all fields in the most secure and durable vault, facility and/or location available, transcribe books into a more durable medium, preserve same, acquire and maintain various machines and artifacts that tend to preserve knowledge by example and/or by use, and make plans for the assistance of anyone who finds themselves in a position where ordinary education is difficult or impossible.

In practical terms, we have deliberately, and according to our mandated Business Plan, put first things first. We have not as many books as we will have, but we have a fully functioning facility for preserving them. We are now embarking not only on making the facility even more secure, but are seeing about the actual preservation of the books themselves.

In preserving the books, we are not speaking of databases or any electronic device. Such become obsolete with disturbing regularity, and are useless without power in any case. Nor are we relying on books that have a shelf life of little over 500 years in the best of cases.

Rather we are going to use micro-engraving processes on nickel or rhodium discs of metal. Resistant to heat and rust, and unable to decay, the information can be accessed on these with only lenses, not dependent on any power source at all. Their size also enables their rapid and inexpensive transportation in any emergency.

There are companies, on the cutting edge of new micro-engraving technology, that are attempting to do this for archival purposes. They seek to replace microfilm with these metal discs. Computers would be able to read them now, and in a grave emergency, one could read them with special lenses.