Gongol.com Archives: January 2025
January 16, 2025
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization best known for the Wayback Machine, a storage point for billions and billions of snapshots of web pages collected for almost 30 years. The "Wayback Machine" is an incomparable archival resource that preserves the ephemeral history of the digital world that would often otherwise blow away forever. ■ But the Internet Archive has taken on a much larger portfolio than just saving copies of old web pages. It's become a repository for noteworthy video recordings and genealogical source materials, among other treasures. ■ Perhaps most extraordinary among their collections, though, is the software emulation section, where it is possible to not just read the information about old computer programs, but to actually play them (over a web browser) in almost exactly the same condition they would have appeared originally. ■ It may not seem like it should matter that one can play Mortal Kombat or ride the Oregon Trail in its earliest form, but they are authentic preservations of cultural experience -- just as much as a way to re-live history as any other interactive museum experience. And the skill of figuring out how to emulate old computing devices may turn out to be the only way for us to recover data stored on old floppy disks and magnetic tapes. ■ A lot of history -- especially that part preserved only on electronic media -- is lost through neglect, obsolescence, and even mold. Some of the technical experts who sustain the archives are colorful characters in their own right, and their work is well worth supporting. In a world where the digital-first mentality is literally driving history out of print, electronic archivists and librarians are doing irreplaceable work today.
