Author Archives: Michael Menna

Recording Now Available from “Protect Our Future Memory” Webinar

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Last week, Internet Archive welcomed more than 150 attendees to the webinar, “Protect Our Future Memory: Join the Call for Library Digital Rights.” Held on January 27, the event brought together legal experts, library leaders, and advocates to talk about Our Future Memory and the global coalition working to secure the protections that memory institutions need in our increasingly digital and networked world.

Watch the session recording:

The webinar opened with a stark reality check: For generations, libraries, archives, museums, and other memory institutions have relied on social and legal norms that allow them to collect, preserve, and lend materials. But nowadays, digital content is increasingly being controlled by restrictive licenses on gated, paywalled platforms. This new distribution stream prohibits memory institutions from doing what they’ve historically been able to do in the physical world, curtailing their essential functions of preserving and providing long-term access to knowledge.

Webinar attendees heard from recent signatories Charlie Barlow, Executive Director of the Boston Library Consortium, and John Chrastka, Executive Director of the EveryLibrary Institute. Their participation highlighted the crisis facing memory institutions—and the demands necessary to overcome it.

“When we have publishers or vendors coming in and saying that we can’t do something that we perceive as foundational and essential,” said Barlow, “we’re in real trouble.” 

Chrastka added, “We’ve got gases, solids, liquids, plasma, and ebooks! Seriously, when you think about it, I can’t own it unless the IP owner wants to distribute that right to us. It’s a violation, in some ways, of a natural order.”

To combat this dire situation, Our Future Memory is building consensus around the Statement on Digital Rights for Protecting Memory Institutions Online. Originating from discussions at the Library Leaders Forum and first endorsed by the National Library of Aruba in 2024, the Statement proposes the simple solution of letting memory institutions do what they were always able to do before the digital age. Specifically, they need the legal rights and practical ability to:

  • Collect digital materials
  • Preserve digital collections
  • Provide controlled digital access
  • Cooperate across institutions

The Statement’s focus on foundational norms is what compelled the Boston Library Consortium to join the coalition, and Barlow emphasized its value as a tool for asserting that traditional library functions must not be treated as negotiable. 

“We chose to sign this one because for us, it really established a clear, public baseline that we can point to when long-standing library rights are being treated as optional or the exception,” he explained. “It really is about making those foundational rights visible and shared and harder to dismiss.”

For Chrastka and the EveryLibrary Institute, endorsing the Statement was a necessary step toward building the political momentum required to change the status quo.

“We haven’t been necessarily talking as a sector out loud together as frequently and as vociferously as we need to about what this should all look like,” Chrastka said. “We want to lean into this conversation.”

How can organizations participate?

It is because memory institutions speak louder when they stand together that Our Future Memory is actively accepting signatures from institutions, organizations, and government entities. If you are ready to stand with a global community committed to protecting the past to power the future, here is how you can join:

  1. Download the Statement from ourfuturememory.org (or email [email protected] for a copy).
  2. Sign the document (either by hand or using an electronic signature tool).
  3. Send the signed document back to [email protected].

Once received, your organization will be added to the list of signatories.

Want to learn more? If you missed the live event, you can watch the full recording or visit the Our Future Memory website for resources to help you advocate for these rights in your own community.

SPARC and Curationist Join Widening Effort to Protect Our Future Memory

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Two more organizations—SPARC and Curationist—have decided to sign the Statement on Four Digital Rights for Memory Institutions Online, demonstrating its broad appeal to memory institutions of different stripes.

SPARC and Curationist represent key collaborative institutions from library world and the museum space, respectively. SPARC is an umbrella advocacy group with more than 250 North American research libraries and academic organizations as its members; Curationist, a digital platform helping museums and archives open their collections to each other and to the world. 

Notwithstanding their distinct areas of focus, SPARC and Curationist are dedicated memory institutions, specializing to meet the needs of their patrons, members, and users, but never forgetting their shared goal of preserving culture and providing equal access to knowledge. That is why both are concerned about the effect that outdated laws are having on cultural heritage organizations in the digital age—and why they’ve joined Our Future Memory’s fight to protect memory institutions’ absolutely vital operations, in a media environment where affordable access to trustworthy information is at a premium.

“Curationist is signing this statement because the future of cultural memory depends on the ability of museums, libraries, and archives to operate fully and responsibly in the digital world,” said Executive Director Christian Dawson. “These rights are not abstract ideals. They are the practical foundations that allow institutions to preserve knowledge, provide access, and collaborate across borders. Our work exists to help make these rights real in practice, and we are proud to stand with a global community committed to protecting the past to power the future.”

To be sure, these “practical foundations” should not be controversial. They reflect the historical operations that have made libraries, archives, museums, and other memory institutions such an essential part of our information ecosystem. The Statement calls for legal assurances of memory institutions’ right and ability to:

  • Collect digital materials
  • Preserve digital collections
  • Provide controlled digital access
  • Cooperate across institutions

Thanks to SPARC and Curationist, the coalition to protect our future memory just got a bit bigger.

Ready to Join?

Your organization can join the movement and sign the Statement by going to the Our Future Memory website.

Want to learn more?

Register and join our informational webinar this Tuesday, January 27: “Protect Our Future Memory: Join the Call for Library Digital Rights.”

ALA, ARL, and CARL Join the Fight to Defend Our Future Memory

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Three of North America’s flagship library organizations have thrown their weight behind the movement to protect memory institutions’ digital rights.

The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) just joined the Statement on Four Digital Rights for Memory Institutions Online. Together, they represent thousands of public and academic research libraries, as well as three of Canada’s federal and parliamentary libraries. Now, they stand with Our Future Memory’s global coalition of libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations expressing the urgent need to protect memory institutions’ vital role in the digital age. 

In endorsing the Statement, Katherine McColgan, manager of administration and programs for CARL, explained that “[t]he current digital landscape is significantly affecting the knowledge economy in two ways. One is that online materials are on platforms that restrict the collection, preservation, and making available materials for future generations. The second is that, without the ability to digitize and make available important scholarly works online, information is lost to new generations of scholars. It is imperative that memory institutions are able to continue their work in the digital environment in the same way as with print.” 

Indeed, the Statement demands nothing new—only the basic rights necessary for libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage organizations to continue their core operations and fulfill their public-serving mission. The Statement calls on policymakers around to world to ensure that memory institutions have the right and ability to:

  • Collect digital materials
  • Preserve digital collections
  • Provide controlled digital access
  • Cooperate across institutions

Building on well over a decade of advocacy by leaders in the library community, “[t]he statement’s principles provide policymakers with a clear roadmap for how to maintain the essential public role of libraries, archives, and museums in the digital age,” said Lisa Varga, associate executive director of ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office. 

It “underscores the importance of protecting libraries’ rights through legislative advocacy and licensing strategies, in an era of increasingly restrictive licensing agreements that threaten essential library functions like building collections, preserving materials, and enabling advanced computational research methods such as AI,” explained ARL’s director of public policy, Katherine Klosek. 

With these new signatories, the global call to protect the rights of memory institutions online gains even further momentum. 

Ready to Join?

Your organization can join the movement and sign the Statement by going to the Our Future Memory website.

Want to Learn More?