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RIP Aaron Swartz, Friend of libraries and open information activist

Shinjoung and I were stunned when we heard the news early yesterday morning that our friend — and supreme friend of libraries and the Internet! — Aaron Swartz left this world late friday evening. Aaron was deeply committed to and passionate about internet freedom and making information and knowledge as available as possible. To those ends, he worked on many projects large and small in his short but influential life. He was 26.

The *many* heartfelt remembrances from communities as diverse as journalism, law and open source tech — witness Rick Perlstein, Lawrence Lessig, Glenn Greenwald, Karl Fogel — attest to Aaron’s supreme impact on the world at large (and that’s no hyperbole!).

Before I had even heard of his tragic demise, a few colleagues and I were in the midst of writing letters of support for Aaron’s nomination for this year’s James Madison award from the American Library Association (ALA). This award, named in honor of President James Madison, was established by the ALA in 1986 to honor individuals or groups who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s “right to know” on the national level. I hope now that ALA will award Aaron posthumously!

We’re helping Archive-it staff harvest a Web archive of Aaron’s work, writings, images, videos, and remembrances. If you’ve got a URI that you’d like to be included in the archive, please paste it to this Google Doc.

Remembrances of Aaron, as well as donations in his memory, can be submitted at http://rememberaaronsw.com

The world will miss you Aaron. Be at peace my friend!





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