{ "@context": [ "http://schema.org", { "ex": "http://example.org/vocab#" } ], "@type": "Report", "headline": "Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record", "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Luca Messarra", "email": "mailto:messarra@stanford.edu", "jobTitle": "Public Humanities Fellow", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Internet Archive" }, "description": "English PhD candidate at Stanford University, specializing in contemporary American literature, history of text technologies, and digital humanities." }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Chris Freeland", "email": "mailto:chrisfreeland@archive.org", "jobTitle": "Director of Library Services", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Internet Archive" } }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Juliya Ziskina", "email": "mailto:juliya@archive.org", "jobTitle": "Policy Attorney", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Internet Archive" } } ], "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Internet Archive Press", "location": { "@type": "Place", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "San Francisco", "addressRegion": "California", "addressCountry": "USA" } } }, "datePublished": "2026", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "about": [ "Digital preservation", "Mass media and culture", "Digital media", "Collective memory", "Web archiving", "Cultural policy", "Streaming technology", "Information policy", "Media Studies", "Public Policy", "Library & Information Science" ], "identifier": [ { "@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "ISBN", "value": "9798995425014", "description": "Paperback" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "ISBN", "value": "9798995425007", "description": "Ebook" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "LCCN", "value": "2025901812" } ], "mainEntityOfPage": "Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Prologue", "text": "The Internet Archive suffered a DDoS attack in 2024, highlighting the fragility of digital cultural preservation.", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Chris Freeland" }, "datePublished": "2024-10-17" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preface", "text": "Corporate interests and streaming licensing threaten cultural preservation; empowering public libraries is essential.", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Luca Messarra" } }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Part 1: Media Preservation and the Production of Public Memory", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Luca Messarra" }, "hasPart": [ { "@type": "ArticleSection", "headline": "I. The Digital Memory Hole", "text": "Digital culture is vanishing rapidly due to obsolescence, corporate control, and lack of preservation rights.", "about": [ "Digital obsolescence", "Copyright", "Media preservation" ] }, { "@type": "ArticleSection", "headline": "II. Recent Digital Vanishing and Preservation Efforts", "text": "Websites, television shows, and video games are disappearing; archives like the Internet Archive help preserve culture.", "about": [ "Web archiving", "Video game preservation", "Digital media preservation" ], "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "How to preserve digital culture", "step": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Archive web pages", "description": "Use tools like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to capture and preserve web pages." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Preserve video game history", "description": "Digitize and emulate historical video games to maintain access despite hardware obsolescence." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Support public archives", "description": "Contribute to and advocate for public-serving archives to ensure long-term cultural preservation." } ] } ] }, { "@type": "ArticleSection", "headline": "III. Historical Losses and the Future of Cultural Preservation", "text": "Historical losses in film and music show the need for legal reform and public empowerment in preservation.", "about": [ "Film preservation", "Music preservation", "Copyright reform" ] } ] }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Part 2: Narratives of Cultural Preservation and Loss", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "Article", "headline": "On the Importance of Remembering Forgotten Books", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Bigelow" }, "text": "Forgotten books often hold valuable cultural insights; the Internet Archive enables rediscovery and reissue." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preserving Papiamento - Safeguarding Aruba’s Language and Cultural Heritage", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Peter Scholing" }, "text": "Digital preservation efforts in Aruba are vital to maintaining Papiamento language and culture, using AI and community collaboration." }, { "@type": "Interview", "headline": "Preserving African Folktales: Interview with Laura Gibbs and Helen Nde", "interviewee": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Laura Gibbs" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Helen Nde" } ], "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Caralee Adams" }, "text": "Digital archives are essential for preserving African folktales and related cultural texts, supporting research and cultural identity." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preserving Cookbooks", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katie Livingston" }, "text": "Family and community cookbooks are cultural artifacts that preserve personal and communal histories, requiring digitization and archiving." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Type Ephemera: Lessons in Endearment", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Eve Scarborough" }, "text": "Type ephemera documents printing history and craft, revealing human labor and materiality, and requires digitization for preservation." }, { "@type": "Interview", "headline": "When Preservation Meets Social Media: Interview with Allie Alvis", "interviewee": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Allie Alvis" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Caralee Adams" }, "text": "Social media and digitization increase access to rare books and collections, helping preserve cultural heritage." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Cultural Preservation and Queer History", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brooke Palmieri" }, "text": "Queer and trans history is preserved through community archives, personal collections, and digital repositories, requiring active engagement." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Keeping The Receipts", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maria Bustillos" }, "text": "Preserving news archives is vital for accountability and historical accuracy; digital preservation faces challenges from corporate control." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preserving TV News in an Age of Misinformation", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Claire Wardle" }, "text": "Television news archives are essential to combat misinformation, but face legal and technical challenges in the streaming era." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The DuMont Network: America’s Vanishing Television History", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Taylor Cole Miller" }, "text": "The DuMont Network was a pioneering early TV network whose archives were lost, highlighting the fragility of television history preservation." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "On Television News and Entertainment", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jeff Ubois" }, "text": "Television archiving faces new obstacles from streaming services and market concentration, threatening long-term access." }, { "@type": "Interview", "headline": "Q&A with Philip Bump, The Washington Post", "interviewee": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Philip Bump" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Caralee Adams" }, "text": "Journalists rely on archives like the Internet Archive for accountability and historical research; digital preservation is increasingly challenging." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "No Film Left Unscanned", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rick Prelinger" }, "text": "Film preservation is difficult due to physical decay and copyright; digital scanning enables preservation and access to ephemeral and home movies." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "On Filmstrips", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mark O’Brien" }, "text": "Filmstrips are a fragile cultural artifact of 20th century education and entertainment, requiring urgent digitization and preservation." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "On 78s", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Blood" }, "text": "78rpm discs capture a vital part of 20th century sound history, documenting cultural and musical heritage that is at risk of loss." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kay Savetz" }, "text": "Amateur radio history is preserved through digital collections, but faces challenges from lost recordings and paywalled membership content." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Music as Oral Tradition", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mark F. DeWitt" }, "text": "Oral musical traditions are living, evolving practices that require preservation through field recordings and archives to avoid cultural loss." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preserving Gaming History", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jordan Mechner" }, "text": "Video game history is at risk due to lack of preservation and legal barriers; community efforts and archives help recover lost software." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Archiving Community Care Work Online", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Amanda Gray Rendón" }, "text": "Women’s care labor, often invisible and undervalued, is documented and preserved through social media and digital archives, highlighting community care." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Why Preserve Flash?", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jason Scott" }, "text": "Flash was a dominant web animation and game platform in the 1990s-2000s; its preservation is vital as many Flash works have vanished." }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Preserving the Library System", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brewster Kahle" }, "text": "Libraries face threats from corporate control and legal restrictions; preserving library access is essential for an informed citizenry." } ] } ], "question": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What analog media formats are most at risk of unintended deterioration or intentional destruction?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Formats such as filmstrips, 78rpm discs, and early digital media are at high risk due to physical decay and lack of preservation." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What percentage of that material has already been digitized, and what barriers exist to its digitization?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Only a fraction of analog materials have been digitized; barriers include financial cost, legal restrictions, and technical challenges." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How do different institutions prioritize preservation efforts, and what models can support broader action?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Institutions prioritize based on resources and cultural value; collaborative models and community archives can support broader preservation." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What options do individuals and memory institutions have for collecting and preserving culture on digital platforms?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "They can use web archiving tools, digital lending, and community archives, but face challenges from platform restrictions and legal issues." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What barriers prevent companies from making their content available to memory institutions?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Corporate control, licensing restrictions, and fear of piracy limit content availability to archives." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How can researchers gain access to cultural content at risk on digital platforms?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Through legal reforms, partnerships with platforms, and use of archives like the Internet Archive." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How do platforms distributing professional content differ from those housing user-generated content?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Professional content platforms impose stricter licensing and removal policies, while user-generated content is more ephemeral and less preserved." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How can we better quantify the extent of cultural loss?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "By conducting data-driven studies of web page availability, media reissues, and archival holdings." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What social and technical solutions can prevent irreplaceable cultural content from vanishing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Empowering public archives, legal reforms for preservation rights, and community-driven digitization efforts." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What can individuals do to help preserve cultural heritage?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Support public-serving libraries and archives, advocate for copyright reform, create open access community archives, and publish under Creative Commons licenses." } } ], "definedTermSet": { "@type": "DefinedTermSet", "name": "Key Terms in Vanishing Culture", "hasDefinedTerm": [ { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Digital Memory Hole", "description": "The phenomenon of digital cultural materials disappearing due to obsolescence, corporate control, or lack of preservation." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Orphan Works", "description": "Copyrighted works no longer commercially available and whose rights holders cannot be located or do not respond." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Controlled Digital Lending", "description": "A library practice of lending digitized copies of physical works under controlled conditions." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Ephemera", "description": "Transient printed materials such as pamphlets, flyers, and type specimens, often not intended for long-term preservation." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Home Movies", "description": "Personal audiovisual recordings documenting daily life, often at risk of physical decay." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Streaming Licensing", "description": "Temporary, conditional access to digital content via streaming platforms without ownership rights." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Punch Card Knitting", "description": "A binary data storage format used in knitting machines, still used by hobbyists and requiring specialized digitization." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Flash", "description": "A web animation and application platform popular in the 1990s-2000s, now preserved via emulation." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Wayback Machine", "description": "An Internet Archive service that archives web pages for public access." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Public Domain", "description": "Creative works not protected by intellectual property laws and free for public use." } ] }, "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "How to Preserve Digital Culture", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Archive Web Pages", "description": "Use tools like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to capture and preserve web pages." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Preserve Video Game History", "description": "Digitize and emulate historical video games to maintain access despite hardware obsolescence." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Support Public Archives", "description": "Contribute to and advocate for public-serving archives to ensure long-term cultural preservation." } ] }, { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "How to Digitize and Archive Punch Card Knitting Patterns", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Scan Punch Cards", "description": "Digitize punch cards with high-quality scans to preserve binary pattern data." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Encode Patterns", "description": "Convert scanned images into ASCII text encoding for flexible digital storage and sharing." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Use CNC Machines", "description": "Use computer numerical control machines like Cricut to cut or punch physical cards from digital files." } ] }, { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "How to Preserve Filmstrips", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Collect Filmstrips", "description": "Gather filmstrips from personal collections, libraries, and estates before they deteriorate." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Digitize Audio and Film", "description": "Use flatbed scanners and audio digitization to preserve filmstrip images and soundtracks." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Upload and Archive", "description": "Make digitized filmstrips publicly accessible through archives like the Internet Archive." } ] } ], "articleBody": "Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record explores the threats to cultural preservation in the digital age, highlighting recent losses, causes, and preservation efforts across media types.", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "contentUrl": "cid:vanishing-culture-cover", "caption": "Cover image of Vanishing Culture report" } }