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SF-Based Internet Archive Is Now a Federal Depository Library. What Does That Mean? (www.kqed.org)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle said that while the nonprofit organization has always functioned as a library, this new designation makes it easier to work with the other federal depository libraries. That, he said, is a service to everyone.

“ I think there is a great deal of excitement to have an organization such as the Internet Archive, which has physical collections of materials, but is really known mostly for being accessible as part of the internet,” Kahle said. “And helping integrate these materials into things like Wikipedia, so that the whole internet ecosystem gets stronger as digital learners get closer access into the government materials.”

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[–] 23 points 1 year ago (10 children)

How so? As far as I can tell all this means is they're added to a list of official places storing public documents. Beyond the slight bragging rights, slightly increased sense of legitimacy in upcoming lawsuits and... I guess the server costs? this seems pretty neutral. I don't even think you need the official designation to actually store the documents in question.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    Lookup who the current dictator is of the US and you’ll have your answer.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    So nothing good can come from this.

    Why?

    Donald Trump.

    How does that follow? Again I ask, you are aware that the US government has more than one person in it, right?

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    The Internet archive is important and Trump now has control over it.

    There. I simplified it for you.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Look again. Trump has no control over it. The Federal Depository designation basically just means that all official documents go to it for archiving. All Federal Depository libraries remain independent and receive no funding from the Government as a part of their membership in the program.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    They can redefine why that membership means at any time.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yes, but that has always been the case. If they're going to do some undemocratic shenanigans, this designation doesn't make it any easier or harder.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    It’s possible I’m wrong about this. I’m just worried. I can’t see anything good coming from tying into the US government in any way right now.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    You're not wrong, but this isn't "tying into" the US Gov any more than your mailbox "ties into" the postal service by being approved by the postmaster general. Your mail carrier could throw a rock at it, but they could have done that before anyway.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    He... does not at all. This is barely a ceremonial denomination meaning that they are a designated mirror of official US documentation. This has even less of an impact than their basic clasification as a library, it's unilaterally decided by just the one senator and is mostly PR. They could have stored the same documents without the designation, even.

    This is all a search or wikipedia visit away. People really operate on the basis of seeing a headline, not even bothering to click through and just... making up what it means in their heads. We really need to get better at this, it's been decades of Internet and centuries of newspapers.

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