The Fundament

Beneath the library is a building. Walls, floors, electricity, plumbing. You don't normally think about it. But it's there.

The building is called the Fundament. It is the Linux kernel — the software that talks to hardware, manages memory, schedules processes. The library runs inside the Fundament the way a collection runs inside a physical building.

> as-archivist walk basement/fundament
> browse

    cpu .............. the building's engine
    memory ........... shelf capacity
    temperature ...... how warm the building is
    storage .......... physical shelves
    kernel-log ....... the building's diary

When something goes wrong — a disk fills, memory runs out — the library speaks in its own language:

"The shelves are full. No new documents can be inscribed until space is made."

You are not a system administrator. You are a reader. The building speaks to you accordingly.