The Library of Congress has selected the V.I. Source to be part of its official archives 25 years after the Virgin Islands’ first daily online newspaper started publishing.
Source management received word Wednesday afternoon that the internet news outlet would be part of the United State’s General News on the Internet Web Archive. Launched in January 1999 by Shaun A. Pennington, now the publisher emeritus, the Source is 15 years older than the Archive itself.
“The Library hopes that you share its vision of preserving digital content and making it available to current and future generations of researchers. As the internet has become an increasingly important and influential part of our lives, we believe the historical record would be incomplete if websites like yours are not preserved and made a part of it,” Library of Congress officials wrote to the Source.
The Source joins online newspapers and magazines from around the United States, big and small — from the Huffington Post and Slate to the Nome Nugget and Indian Country Media Network.
Although the Source has several web addresses under its umbrella, one for each island plus the St. John Tradewinds, the Library selected https://stcroixsource.com/ to represent the publication.
The honor comes at an auspicious time for Virgin Islands news organizations as the print-only St. Croix Avis announced this week it would soon end its 180-plus years of publication. While news outlets compete for readership and advertising support, no one at the Source was happy to hear the Avis would cease publication. Small communities like the Virgin Islands deserve broad and diverse news from journalists invested in informing their neighbors.
