[!@#$%!]

also if you've ever dealt with a rare book collection you'll know that greasy fingers and cough spray and other stupid little bits of human ooze are a deadly poison to antiquities-- and so access is severely limited, via special permission only, etc. -- so beyond the fact that it makes things available to all, thus reducing wear and tear and mold and rot, digitization is really vital for the preservation of knowledge once objects *inevitably* fall apart.