Today I learned that the university of Coimbra in Portugal has
a great 18th-century library, the Biblioteca Joanina, that maintains a colony of bats to effectively control the population of paper-eating insects called
papirófagos.
These bats are less than an inch long. They roost during the day behind the bookcases and come out at night. There doesn’t seem to be any English word for
papirófago, a cursory search turns up no details about what sort of insect they are, and ngl I am slightly concerned about them as a phenomenon. But I think my overarching point here is clear:
This library keeps tiny bats that look after the books.
I’m here for tiny bats saving books.
Aaaahhh!!
What good and noble tiny flitters!!!! <3
My nayme is Batt
And wen its nite
On sylente wings
I flye to fiteThe lybrarie’s
My battlefielde
Papir’fagoes
Haffe to be killed
My foes emerge
From payper nooks
I eate them allI sayve the books