Some of us helped build the Internet so digital works could be archived and “libraried”. And then made archives of Web pages and created services around them.
But it turns out that few of us did this, and the biggest, Google, did it privately and for profit. to help and has archived billions of Web Pages, millions of hours of TV and radio, millions of books, records, movies and software.
Most traditional libraries have done little to preserve digital materials. The Internet Archive is quite unique in focusing on this mission and I would say under supported. Encouraging, however, is that 100,000 individuals a year now donate to support the Internet Archive’s public services. Hope is there.
We need libraries of digital materials, tools to whatsapp lead use these libraries, and ways to protect them, fund them and integrate them into schools and our lives more generally. This way we can remember, think, and build on the past.
With so much in digital form, and storage and communication so easy, it should be the librarian’s day! It can be the library user’s day…
Let’s build that world… of preservation and access, of reflection and critique, with confidence that what happened actually happened so that our histories can rely on immutable evidence.
Libraries do not command the world, but libraries are necessary in the functioning of a thoughtful world.
We are grateful for their commitment to user privacy, helping advance alternatives to the current ad-supported Web, and focusing on improving the overall Web browsing experience. We applaud Brave’s leadership in these efforts and look forward to working with them on other ways to help make the Web more useful and reliable.