AO3, OTW, and a Simple Question Needing to be Answered

[wallace_trust]

Now that I am finally gathering my LOTR artwork all in one place here, I've also been posting much of it on AO3.  This has got me thinking of the future.

AO3 hosts text, but not images, and Dreamwidth does not offer enough image hosting space for me to make any real use of it.  So all of this is dependent on my images being hosted by my generous cousin's server.  If that ever goes down, and someday it will, my art goes with it.  

I have backups, of course, on site and elsewhere in the cloud, so I can rebuild my digital galleries, but that's not the problem.  What I need to know from AO3 is if they have a physical archive at one of their participating colleges where I can send a Blu-Ray disc, to ensure my fanart is preserved over time by people who know what fanart is and care about it.  Not because I think it's so brilliant, but just because it's something I've put so much time and love into.  

Unfortunately, when I asked this question of the AO3 staff, they gave me the helpful, but completely misguided answer of instructions on how to embed my images in a web page.  But if I didn't know how to do that already, I wouldn't be posting on AO3, right?  ;)

So the other day I went to the OTW, of which I am a member, and emailed them about it.  No answer so far.

Many of you friendly folk are also posting on AO3, so I thought I would ask you instead.  The OTW does have a physical archive for print zines.  Do any of you know if they have a physical archive for things like digital art?  

EDIT:  I finally got a reply from the OTW.  Here is what they said:

'Thank you for reaching out to the Open Doors Committee with your question. Unfortunately, although we're aware of the need for this type of preservation, we're not equipped at this time to preserve digital fanworks in a physical archive. In the meantime, there is information available in the AO3 Posting and Editing FAQ about approved sites for hosting multimedia files if you'd like to protect your fanart by backing it up in multiple places.'

I'm currently checking out the Internet Archive at archive.org (Home of the Wayback Machine.)  I'm not yet certain what their official policy on fanfic/fanart is, but they are the Internet Archive after all...  

Comments

[baranduin]

Interesting. Seems to me that if they have a location to store 'zines, then they have a location to store disks. Be interested to hear what the OTW says about that.

[wallace_trust]

This is what I'm thinking. An alternative might be for me to have prints made of my favorite works and send those to the zine archive, but that would cost more money. And prints are so much more fragile than Blu-Ray, which is supposed to have a lifespan of hundreds of years. I wonder if a print-and-disc combo might be acceptable, all packaged together as a 'zine.'

I just wish they would get back to me, it's been over a month since I started asking this question :P

[wallace_trust]

Just in case my post doesn't update for you (I don't know how that works) here is the OTW's reply:

'Thank you for reaching out to the Open Doors Committee with your question. Unfortunately, although we're aware of the need for this type of preservation, we're not equipped at this time to preserve digital fanworks in a physical archive. In the meantime, there is information available in the AO3 Posting and Editing FAQ about approved sites for hosting multimedia files if you'd like to protect your fanart by backing it up in multiple places.'

I'm currently checking out the Internet Archive at archive.org (Home of the Wayback Machine.) I'm not yet certain what their official policy on fanfic/fanart is, but they are the Internet Archive after all...