The language of preservation, and the labels on every record.

This page defines the terms of art used across the Library and the Archive: first the vocabulary of digital preservation, then the labels that appear on a record and what each one does — and does not — claim.

I Lazarus Link

A record whose original source has gone offline. The link died; the work did not. What you are reading is the copy captured while the source was still up — brought back to life, which is where the name comes from.

It is a measured fact about the outside world, not a cataloguing judgement. A link monitor checks every source on a schedule and applies the label itself; if the source returns, the label is removed again. The test is deliberately strict, because a false Lazarus badge is worse than noticing a week late: only a 404, a 410 or a host that no longer resolves counts as dead. A 401, 403, 405 or 429 is a site blocking automated traffic, and a 5xx or a timeout is a server having a bad day — both are recorded as blocked, never as dead.

Preservation follows the law rather than the wish. Where a work is public domain or freely licensed, the file itself is kept and served here. Where it is not, the record keeps the citation, the context and the provenance. We bring back what we legally can.

II The Language of Preservation

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  Link Rot

  When web pages and links become permanently inaccessible over time — sites go offline, domains expire, or content is quietly removed. The core problem this Library exists to fight.
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  Content Drift

  When a URL still loads but its content has silently changed, so a citation no longer reflects what was originally referenced.
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  Reference Rot

  The combined effect of link rot and content drift on the sources a work depends on.
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  LOCKSS

  Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe — the preservation principle that many independent copies protect against loss.
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  Fixity / Checksum

  A cryptographic fingerprint, such as SHA-256, that proves a preserved file has not been altered since it was captured.
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  Provenance

  The documented origin and chain of custody of an archived item: where it came from and when it was captured.
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  Dark Archive

  A preserved copy kept privately for integrity and backup, not shown publicly, until rights or circumstances allow access.
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  Primary Source

  An original document or firsthand record, as opposed to later commentary or interpretation about it.
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  Viewpoint-Neutral

  Preserving material from across the ideological spectrum without endorsing any of it. Preservation is not agreement.
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  Accession

  The formal process by which an item is taken into the archive's permanent collection and given a record.

III The Labels on a Record

Every record carries a handful of labels. None of them is a verdict on whether the work is right. They describe where a document came from and how well that can be shown.

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  Classification

  Primary Source is an original document or firsthand record. Secondary Source is later commentary on one. Document covers the rest — reports, statements and papers that are neither.
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  Source Provenance

  The three dots on a record, shown as High, Medium or Low. They rate how well the source can be traced — whether the chain from the original publication to the copy held here is documented and checkable. They are not a rating of truth, quality or importance, and they say nothing about whether we agree with a word of it. A work written for this archive carries no score at all: there is no external provenance to rate, and a citation to our own page would be circular.
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  Context Label

  Short tags such as Primary Source, Banned, Recovered, High Controversy, Competing Interpretations or Internet Origin. They do not approve or condemn a work; they tell a reader what kind of evidence, source trail and interpretive risk comes with it. The full list is on the About page. Lazarus Link is one of these, and the only one no person applies by hand.
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  Collection

  The shelf a work sits on — Political Extremes, Contested History, Suppressed Works, Esoteric Traditions and the rest. A collection describes the main reason a document belongs in the archive, not a judgement of its contents.
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  Transcript

  The readable text of a work, set out for the reading pane, search and translation. Where a scan exists the transcript sits alongside it rather than replacing it.
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  The Original File As Captured

  The exact file the text was taken from, kept unaltered with its checksum. It is the strongest form of provenance the archive can offer: the transcript and the file are demonstrably the same document.
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  Facsimile

  A scan of a printed edition, preserved in full so a work can be read as it was actually made rather than only as text. A facsimile is often a different edition from the one the transcript was set from, which is why small differences in wording, spelling and page breaks between the two are expected — and why it is labelled a facsimile instead of the original file as captured. Claiming otherwise would be inventing provenance.
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  The Library and the Archive

  The Library is the curated shelf: works accessioned, checked and catalogued by an archivist. The Archive is the open one: material flagged by readers and preserved because it is at risk. Everything in either is read by a person before it is published.

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