Pennsylvania has taken an important step into the future in an effort to better preserve its past.

Irreplaceable documents currently are being moved into the new Rare Collections wing at the Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg, a $7.2 million renovation that transformed 18,000 square feet of space used for offices, meeting rooms and card catalogs into a veritable vault for historic treasures.

Until now, some of the oldest and rarest volumes in the nation have been stored on metal shelves in a room with harsh fluorescent lighting. Thankfully, that will change as items carefully are transferred to their new home in a high-tech facility designed with preservation in mind.

Planning for the wing started in 1998, and construction took two years. The collaborative project involved architects, engineers, chemists, physicists, historians, librarians and paper-preservationists.

The Rare Collection section of the library features dim lighting, cool temperatures and a state-of-the-art filtration system designed to extend the life of the 12,000 manuscripts that include editions of Poor Richard's Almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, the first American Bible published in the Colonies in a modern European language, more than 400 volumes of primarily law books purchased by Franklin for use by Pennsylvania's legislators, as well as newspapers, books and pamphlets published as early as 1685, including some from Franklin's press.

Because the state library now has the ability to preserve the holdings, it can make them available, principally to serious researchers and students but also to the public, in a controlled setting. That won't be possible for another six months, but be prepared to make an appointment and wear protective gloves, smocks and booties.

Although most of the creature comforts are intended for the benefit of the documents, an elegant reading room -- featuring stained glass windows, Venetian plaster walls, black cherry wood trim and granite floors and tabletops to amplify light -- provides an appropriate setting for humans, too.

The Governor's Advisory Council on Library Development and the State Library deserve the accolades for this effort. Pennsylvanians will be grateful for generations.