ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the urgent issue of long-term preservation of amateur media and how technological, political, social and cultural factors influence how we appraise and archive the often ephemeral nature of amateur media expressions. In particular, digital material poses multiple challenges, one of them the sustainability of many forms and formats of amateur media. The challenge is a shared task of public cultural heritage institutions, commercial and individuals alike. The archival strategies and the choices of what to keep and what to delete may resonate for decades to come. The chapter argues that the complexities and contradictions that characterise present-day amateur media culture are mirrored by and reproduced in the complexities and contractions of archiving digital memories. There are no simple solutions and there are no simple guidelines, as amateur media archives – whether personal or collective – have been caught up in ethical, emotional, commercial ,political contested areas and bear the burden of being personal, material, technological and psychological.
