Sarah Kessler:
So what does the Library of Congress think is worth saving? Here are the portions of today’s web your grandchildren will be able to access through the Library of Congress:
1. Twitter feeds—all of them […]
2. National Election Candidates’ Internet Presences […]
3. Facebook Pages—A Selective Few […]
4. Notable Historical Events […]
5. News Sites That Give Permission
Unlike libraries in some other countries, the Library of Congress has no legal mandate to preserve the web. Therefore, the web archive team can’t collect everything they would like to without asking permission. Because news sites and blogs earn money on their content, the Library needs to get consent before it includes their pages in the archives.
Grotke says that few news organizations that the web archive team contacts for permission ever respond, which means that not much of the content in the web archives comes from news sites.