Entire UK web domain e-re to stay in Cambridge

Tweets, Facebook posts and billions of web pages will be kept forever by Cambridge University Library thanks to new regulations coming into force tomorrow.
The measures will entitle the UL to a copy of every UK electronic publication - from e-books to public Facebook messages - and the researchers of today and generations to come will be able to dive right in.
The right is being granted on the same basis as the UL has received a copy of all the books and journals published in the UK and Ireland for hundreds of years.
Anne Jarvis, Cambridge University librarian, said: “I greatly welcome this landmark legislation as it means that Cambridge University Library can collect and preserve the UK’s digital publishing output, particularly that which will support current and future research.”
The library is being given the right along with the UK’s five other legal deposit libraries, which include Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and the British Library.
Access to the material will be offered in reading room facilities at the libraries and researchers will be able to get their hands on the fruits of the first live archiving spree by the end of the year.
The regulations have been developed by the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport along with the joint committee on legal deposit.
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey MP said: “Legal deposit arrangements remain vitally important. Preserving and maintaining a record of everything that has been published provides a priceless resource for the researchers of today and the future.
“So it’s right that these long-standing arrangements have now been brought up to date for the 21st century, covering the UK’s digital publications for the first time. The joint committee on legal deposit has worked very successfully in creating practical policies and processes so that digital content can now be effectively archived and our academic and literary heritage preserved, in whatever form it takes.”