Montfort et Wardrip-Fruin nous proposent un pamphlet sur la nécessité d’intervenir rapidement pour sauvegarder le corpus de littérature électronique qui tend à s’auto-expurger avec les années. S’inscrivant dans les orientations de la Electronic Literature Organization, ce texte, intitulé Acid-Free Bits: Recommendations for Long-Lasting Electronic Literature, annonce qu’il y a péril en la demeure et s’interroge sur les moyens à prendre pour faciliter la pérennisation des ?uvres électroniques:
If special efforts aren’t made now, students, professors, authors, and readers won’t be able to access many important works of electronic literature in the future. For electronic literature to contribute to our culture, it’s important to have works that readers can return to later, literature people can recommend to others with some assurance that the work will still be available in readable form. Preserving e-lit, and creating e-lit that will remain available, is essential to the very concept of electronic literature, the basic idea that the computer can be a place for new literary works that make use of its capabilities.
