How streamification challenges the Royal Danish Library's collection of cultural heritage

Abstract

Danish legal deposit legislation mandates that the Royal Danish Library must collect contemporary culture for the benefit of the public and researchers, now and in the future. In this article, I analyse how the move toward access models and the subsequent streamification of media content challenges the collection of cultural heritage. I draw on empirical data from two central activities. The main empirical data stems from archival research and interviews with the library's internal and external stakeholders. The second source of empirical data is the in-house testing performed by web curators when they analysed the collection of streaming-only content via an API from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). The analysis is followed by a discussion of the effects of streaming software and services on collection methods such as stream-ripping, screen capture (image or video), and research collaborations with the producers and distributors of born-digital content.