> There is an indication that the scanning and destruction of books can destroy the last copy of books that are rare.
Every book that has been published in the United States has a copy in the Library of Congress.
Neutron Radiography: Proceedings of the First World Conference San Diego, California, U.S.A. December 7–10, 1981 is a rare book - there's only one copy available from used book sellers on Amazon.
There is a copy of it in the Library of Congress. https://search.catalog.loc.gov/instances/b220c9bd-63ad-5a8b-... . You can go to the Science and Business reading room and request it so you can read it. https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/science-and-business/ab...
For any book that has been published, you can do this. It might not be in the United States if it wasn't published here... it would be in other national libraries (Tom Scott This library has every book ever published. https://youtu.be/ZNVuIU6UUiM )
Chasing links from the article you linked gives examples. https://nltimes.nl/2026/06/25/rare-book-dealers-fear-tech-fi...
“We have compiled a very extensive list of editions that we are currently trying to acquire, and we plan to place a fairly large order. The list is attached,” the email said.
The attachment contained 3,000 English-language titles organized by ISBN number, including books such as Distinct Element Modelling in Geomechanics by K.R. Saxena (1999); Barrett's Traditional Fairy Tales (2021), an academic study of Irish folklore; and Laser Shock Peening of Advanced Ceramics by Pratik Shukla (2018).
Some of these are from other countries. For example, Barrett's Traditional Fairy Tales is from Ireland.
https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000896773/StaffViewMARCThe last copy of a book is not destroyed.