Inspired by widespread use of online communications within the school and surrounding community, Stanford University has enacted an ambitious plan to establish a collaborative digital archive, according to the Stanford Daily.
"We've know how to archive paper for quite some time," Stanford Libraries director of communications and development Andrew Herkovic told the news source. "There's a lot of new art and science that needs to be developed for digital archiving. We've been doing a lot of web archiving for Stanford websites."
Herkovic added that the lack of copyright hurdles have expedited the process and made it even easier for alumni to donate artifacts of note to the collection. Donors can deliver their content in a matter of mouse clicks through an electronic drop box feature.
University libraries have long been at the cutting edge of digital archiving, possessing both the technology for and interest in preserving large catalogues of material. However, government agencies like the Library of Congress and National Archives and Records Administration have taken the lead on applying those principles to new media such as email and Tweets.
