The Library of Virginia has selected the Bacon’s Rebellion blog “for inclusion in its historic collection of Internet materials” relating to Virginia’s 2005 state-wide elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

According to an e-mail I received from Kathy Jordan, electronic resources manager:

The Library will engage in the collection of content from your Web site at regular intervals from September through the election. The Library will make this collection available to researchers onsite in the Library’s reading room. After the election, the content of the site will become part of the Library’s archival collection and continue to be available as an historical record of public opinion.

Naturally, we’re flattered that the Library of Virginia would deem Bacon’s Rebellion worthy of preservation for posterity. I fully expect that the Library will do the same for many of the Commonwealth’s other excellent blogs.

What’s truly significant is not the selection of this or that blog but the fact that the Library of Virginia even has an electronic resources manager whose job is to archive electronic content. Think about that! Some future historian will delve into our blogs for insight into the thinking of everyday people. We will yield a bounty of authenticity that researchers could never find in the newspapers or broadcast video files.

So, be careful what you post on the Rebellion! Not only will we think you’re a knucklehead, historians a hundred years from now could conclude that you’re a knucklehead, too!