Some people dedicate their time to preserving endangered species. Others collect rare objects.

One unusual collector is doing a little of both. Brewster Kahle, a self-proclaimed book archivist, is on a quest to save something he believes to be an endangered species: printed books.

The 50-year-old Kahle, a graduate of MIT (News - Alert) with a degree in computer science, has a background in archiving: he founded the nonprofit Internet Archive in 1996. The organization's goal is to save a printed copy of every Web page ever posted, presumably in case humanity reaches an apocalyptic future without computers.

Now Kahle has a new mission: the MIT-trained computer scientist and entrepreneur is expanding his effort to safeguard and share knowledge by trying to preserve a physical copy of every book ever published, reports the Associated Press (News - Alert).

“There is always going to be a role for books,” said Kahle. The books his organization is collecting are being stored in climate-controlled containers that can hold about 40,000 volumes each: about the size of a branch library. “We want to see books live forever,” added Kahle.

Kahle, who has gathered about 500,000 books, may be onto something. Earlier this year, Amazon announced it had reached a tipping point with e-books: more books being sold in electronic format than in traditional printed book format.

Of course, half a million is a pittance compared to the roughly 130 million different printed books engineers participating in Google's (News - Alert) book scanning project claim exist worldwide, reports the AP.

Kahle acknowledges that collecting one of every book (which are being donated to his cause) in the history of the world may be unfeasible, but he hopes to collect about 10 million, or the equivalent of a major university library.

“The idea is to be able to collect one copy of every book ever published. We're not going to get there, but that's our goal,” he told the Associated Press.