Theses on the philosophy of archiving, #2

The principle of the archive: to preserve (or trying to). Thus, and contrary to popular belief, YouTube is not an archive. If a metaphor is to be employed, such gathering and distribution of information could, at best, be likened to a library. Possibly a museum. Most apt, however, would be to compare YouTube to a video store, a commercial outlet of a collection whose content is governed by demand, storage capacity and sheer coincidence. It makes a great pastime, but it’s not how we work.