🎧 Link rot, pay walls and the perils of preservation (Future Tense)
The cliché is that once something goes online, it’s up there forever. But the truth is that the Internet has a memory problem and some of what we’re losing – or could potentially lose – has significance and value. While archivists struggle with the challenge of preserving our digital record, the rise of pay walls present a particular problem.
Anthony, this is an intriguing topic. I was listening to Audrey Watters’ speak recently on digging through unsent letters that are held in archives. I imagine these days we would delete these or they would be far from public, let alone archived for future prosperity.
Yes. And the possibility of a serendipitous find must surely be diminished, it seems to me.