In past four years, universities began preserving the web

To paraphrase the Chief Justice, every day, objects cannot be in an infinite number of places -- precious, historic objects especially. So traditionally, when it came time for an author's notebooks or collected letters to be preserved, archives and special collections had to fight (and pay) for the right to have them in their library.

 

That's now beginning to change. The creation of digitized and born-digital archives allows libraries to easily collaborate in storing them. And in a survey released last month by a Library of Congress working group, 96% of institutions expressed interest in collaborating on web archiving -- though only 23% were currently doing it.

 

The survey drew 77 responses: 22% from government, 29% from cultural heritage institutions, and 46% from universities. It doesn't claim to be representative, but it covers institutions archiving both their own and others' content, and it gives a good sense of how contemporary life is being recorded and stored for the future. 

Read more at The Atlantic.