The Race to the Bottom and the Library of Congress

One benefit to blogging is that it often results in awareness of things happening in the online universe that would otherwise be entirely unknown.  Yesterday, this Blog received an email from the Library of Congress.  We were honored to learn that The Race to the Bottom had been invited to be included in the Library's "historic collection of internet materials related to Legal Blawgs."  As the email noted:

• The United States Library of Congress has selected your Web site for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including Web sites. We request your permission to collect your Web site and add it to the Library's research collections. We also ask that we be allowed to display the archived version(s) of your Web site.

Upon further investigation, it turns out that the Library of Congress has in place a program that goes under the label of "web retention."   According to the site:

• The Library of Congress preserves the nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions of acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and the American people to foster education and scholarship extend to digital materials, including Web sites.

The plan is to accumulate blog material from four different categories of sites, one of which is labeled "legal blawgs."   What exactly are these? 

• A selective collection of authoritative blogs associated with American Bar Association approved law schools, research institutes, think tanks, and other expertise-based organizations, containing journal-style entries, articles and essays, discussions, and comments on emerging legal issues, national and international.

We have often wondered about the appropriate label for this Blog.  We have received an occasional suggestion (particularly "sensational") but are more than happy to accept the judgment of the Library of Congress and go with "authoritative." 

Comments

[Herrick Lidstone]

Only comment possible -- congratulations and well deserved!