Swiss National Library starts collecting Wikipedia articles
The Swiss National Library is building a digital collection of Wikipedia articles related to Switzerland. The articles are to be permanently archived for future generations and made freely available online. To this end, the National Library is working with Wikimedia, the association for the promotion of free knowledge, Wikimedia said in a statement on Monday. The collection began in 2023 and includes more than 125,000 articles with a connection to Switzerland. Wikimedia expects an increase of around 5,000 Wikipedia articles a year, the association added. The difference between the archived form of articles and live Wikipedia articles is that the archived article is “frozen” and no longer changed in the long-term archive, it said. “Just because Wikipedia is online does not mean that this online encyclopaedia is secured for all eternity,” Wikimedia said. “This can only be guaranteed by a memory institution with a corresponding mandate. The Swiss National Library has this mission.”...