The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Web site NuclearFiles.org has been selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ historic collections of Internet materials.
NuclearFiles.org is the foundation’s educational Web site, offering a comprehensive history of the Nuclear Age with interactive time lines and resources for students, teachers and the public.
It was launched in 1998 and has been built and maintained by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with the support of a National Science Foundation grant and financial assistance from the Simons Foundation.
“The library’s traditional functions — acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people to foster education and scholarship — extend to digital materials, including Web sites,” the Library of Congress said in a statement. “Our Web Archives are important because they contribute to the historical record, capturing information that could otherwise be lost. With the growing role of the Web as an influential medium, records of historic events could be considered incomplete without materials that were ‘born digital’ and never printed on paper.”
David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said he is pleased that the Library of Congress has chosen to save Nuclearfiles.org as an educational legacy. It is far more than an archival matter, though.
“A full and factual accounting of the development of the Nuclear Age helps us to understand current obstacles to nuclear disarmament,” he said. “It also provides the context in which to create a road map for a safer future without nuclear weapons.”
— Steven Crandell is the director of development and public affairs for the Nuclear Peace Age Foundation.