Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record explores the vulnerabilities in preserving our digital and cultural heritage. This comprehensive report, edited by Luca Messarra, Chris Freeland, and Juliya Ziskina, covers the systematic disappearance of cultural media, driven by factors such as licensing restrictions, corporate control, and technological obsolescence. The document is divided into two primary sections: "Media Preservation and the Production of Public Memory," which examines the historical and contemporary challenges in digital preservation, and "Narratives of Cultural Preservation and Loss," offering essays on the importance of cultural memory across various media. Key discussions include the role of public institutions like the Internet Archive, the impact of copyright law, and the risks posed by modern content distribution models. Through case studies, it underscores the urgent need for legal and financial support for archives and libraries to ensure continued access to cultural resources for future generations.
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- United States of America
Table of Contents
- Luca Messarra¹ Chris Freeland² and Juliya Ziskina³ 2
- Vanishing Culture 2
- A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record 2
- Contents 3
- Prologue 4
- Chris Freeland 5
- Preface 6
- Part 1 8
- Media Preservation and the Production of Public Memory 8
- Luca Messarra Public Humanities Fellow Internet Archive 8
- The Digital Memory Hole 10
- How Did We Get Here 11
- Recent Digital Vanishing and Preservation Efforts 17
- II. 17
- Recent Web Vanishing and Preservation 18
- Pages from the MTV News web site have been preserved by the Internet Archive since 1997. 22
- Recent Video Game Loss and Preservation 25
- Historical Losses and the Future of Cultural Preservation 31
- III. 31
- What can we do 34
- Part 2 37
- Narratives of Cultural Preservation and Loss 37
- Books and Material Culture 38
- Film TV Sound 39
- News 39
- Digital Culture 40
- Books and Material Culture 41
- On the Importance of Remembering Forgotten Books 42
- About the Author 44
- Preserving Papiamento - Safeguarding Arubas Language and Cultural Heritage 45
- About the Author 48
- Preserving African Folktales Interview with Laura Gibbs and Helen Nde 49
- About the Author 51
- Preserving Cookbooks 52
- About the Author 55
- Type Ephemera Lessons in Endearment 56
- About the Author 58
- When Preservation Meets Social Media Interview with Allie Alvis 59
- Cultural Preservation and Queer History 61
- About the Author 64
- News 65
- Keeping The Receipts 66
- About the Author 68
- Preserving TV News in an Age of Misinformation 69
- About the Author 71
- The DuMont Network Americas Vanishing Television History 72
- About the Author 77
- On Television News and Entertainment 78
- About the Author 80
- QA with Philip Bump The 81
- Film TV Sound 85
- No Film Left Unscanned 86
- About the Author 88
- On Filmstrips 89
- About the Author 92
- On 78s 93
- Why is it important to preserve 78rpm discs 93
- About the Author 94
- Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications 95
- About the Author 97
- Music as Oral Tradition 98
- About the Author 103
- Digital Culture 104
- Preserving Gaming History 105
- About the Author 107
- Archiving Community Care Work Online 108
- About the Author 111
- Why Preserve Flash 112
- Flash. 112
- About the Author 114
- Punch Card Knitting 115
- Digitizing the already-digital 118
- Punch Card Encoding 120
- Punch cards preserve the past and future 121
- About the Author 121
- Recovering Lost Software 122
- About the Author 126
- What Early Internet Era GIFs Show Us About Preserving Digital Culture 127
- About the Author 131
- Questions for Further Research 132
- Share Your Story 134
