Aruba’s colonial history also means documents are scattered all over the place. “Our collection is fragmented,” said Edric Croes, head of archive conservation and management at the National Archives of Aruba. There are pieces available for scanning from around the world, including the Netherlands, Spain, the United States, and other islands such as Curacao. Scolin noted that establishing a center for finding documents online would be particularly helpful for researchers abroad, who no longer need to travel to Aruba to dig through archives in person.
It would be unusual for a country to outsource such a project to a foreign nonprofit. “In an ideal world, every national library would have enough money to hire an amazing team,” said Ian Milligan, a professor of history at the University of Waterloo who is writing a book about book on the origins of the Internet Archive, but was not involved in the creation of Aruba. project. “Governments generally don’t have that capacity.”
Although the Internet Archive has worked with many national and regional libraries around the world, it has not previously served as custodian of a country’s entire collection. Back in 2011, it partnered with the Cultural Office of the Indonesian island province of Bali to preserve what the office said at the time was “90 percent of Bali’s literature.” (This now makes up the Internet Archive’s Bali Digital Library collection.)
Archivists in Aruba hope other countries will follow in its digital footsteps. “This is a truly feasible model that could be applied to many small islands, developing countries, and even large countries with limited financial resources,” Skrin said.
For cash-strapped archivists, partnering with the Internet Archive may seem like an obvious solution. However, potential partners do need to think about what it means to be dependent on a private organization in another country, as this organization faces its own challenges.
“When we think about digital preservation, we often think about technical challenges,” said Waterloo’s Milligan. “But I think the biggest challenge is a social challenge, a human challenge. How do you build an organization that’s still around 50 years from now?”
He believes that the Internet Archive has a very “sustainable structure” for the future. But that doesn’t mean it’s completely invulnerable. The Archives currently faces a series of serious legal challenges that pose an existential threat, including lawsuits from major labels such as Universal Music Group, Capitol and Sony – which are seeking damages that could exceed $400 million.
On top of that, there have been ongoing disputes with publishing companies over the digital lending libraries they have set up during the pandemic. Although its digital capabilities are far greater than those of many nation-states, the Internet Archive’s position in the growing battle between copyright holders and technology companies means that its future is also in jeopardy.
The Internet Archive believes Aruba’s recognition is particularly timely. “It’s encouraging to see the nation of Aruba continue to add materials and upload content while we face this issue,” Freeland said. “We’re in this for the long haul.”