The United States Library of Congress has selected Estonian World for inclusion in its web archives.
“We consider your website to be an important part of this collection and the historical record,” the US Library of Congress said in its email where it asked for permission to provide public access to archived versions of estonianworld.com.
According to itself, the Library of Congress preserves important cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them.
“The Library’s traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including websites. Our web archives are important because they contribute to the historical record, capturing information that could otherwise be lost. With the growing role of the web as an influential medium, records of historic events could be considered incomplete without materials that were ‘born digital’ and never printed on paper.”
The United States Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States.
The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and it is one of the largest libraries in the world.
According to the library, websites chosen for archiving are selected by Library Recommending Officers. “Sites in the web archive are generally representative samples of web content that document an event or cover a particular theme or subject area for our thematic and event collections.”
Estonian World is the biggest independent English language media outlet that focuses on Estonia. The global magazine was founded in 2012 by Silver Tambur, Sander Saar and Sten Hankewitz and has editorial representations in London, Chicago, Los Angeles and Tallinn.
Estonian World has approximately one million readers per year and over 50,000 followers in the social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn – and is read in more than 200 countries and territories. The independent magazine is partly supported by its readers.
Cover: The main reading room at the US Library of Congress. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Wikipedia.
