WP:There is a deadline

{{Nutshell|The preservation or survivability of the world's knowledge is at stake. Contribute it to Wikipedia before it's too late.}}

{{see also|Wikipedia:There is no deadline|Wikipedia:The deadline is now}}

File:Ancientlibraryalex.jpg, only one of many destroyed libraries in antiquity, lost long before Wikisource had the chance to save their contents]]

Practically every day, distinct forms of knowledge are lost forever and no copies are available. When a natural disaster hits a region or a war breaks out; libraries, archives, museums, monuments and other artifacts of heritage, valuable buildings, incunabula and unique objects are destroyed or face the threat of destruction. These events usually remove pieces of human knowledge and sometimes entire cultures.

Historical instances

There are plenty of examples of permanent loss of knowledge before Wikipedia's existence. The following is a non-exhaustive list.[http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/administ/pdf/LOSTMEMO.PDF Lost Memory — Libraries and Archives Destroyed in the Twentieth Century] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/69rt7I98e?url=http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/administ/pdf/LOSTMEMO.PDF |date=August 12, 2012 }})

= Before 20th century =

File:Birmingham Central Library fire jan1879.jpg fire aftermath, 1879]]

The Libraries of Alexandria, House of Wisdom and Constantinople are among many great libraries of the ancient world to have been destroyed. As well, many ancient Chinese encyclopedias are partially or completely lost to history.
The medieval archives of Gozo were destroyed during the Ottoman invasion of 1551.{{cite news|last1=Grima|first1=Noel|title=Notarial Archives discovery: Documents from Gozo dating to 1431 saved from the bin|url=http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-05-23/local-news/Documents-from-Gozo-dating-to-1431-saved-from-the-bin-6736135676|work=The Malta Independent|date=May 23, 2015|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20150811131140/http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-05-23/local-news/Documents-from-Gozo-dating-to-1431-saved-from-the-bin-6736135676|archivedate=August 11, 2015}}
Diego de Landa's burning of the Maya codices in 1562. Only four are known to have survived. Most knowledge of Maya history is thus lost.
The Beeldenstorm that spread through the Low countries in 1566 in which many statues and religious artifacts of the Catholic Church were destroyed by iconoclasts.
A fire destroyed more than 500 paintings located in Royal Alcázar of Madrid on Christmas Eve 1734. Other works, such as Las Meninas by Velázquez, were saved.
The 1836 U.S. Patent Office fire irretrievably destroyed most of the U.S. patent documents collected up to that time.
A fire in the Birmingham Central Library in 1879 caused extensive damage with only 1,000 volumes saved from a stock of 50,000.{{Citation | last = | first =| authorlink = | title =Notes on the history of Birmingham Public Libraries (1861–1961)|edition= | publisher = Birmingham | year =1962 | location = | page = | isbn = }}

= 20th century =

Churches, monasteries, convents and libraries were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War.{{cite web |url=http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/fichero_articulo?codigo=2544098&orden=0 |title=El martirio de los libros: una aproximación a la destrucción bibliográfica durante la Guerra Civil |url-status=live |archive-url=http://www.webcitation.org/621F4RVjl?url=http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/fichero_articulo?codigo%3D2544098%26orden%3D0 |archive-date=September 27, 2011 |lang=es}}
Most of the 1890 United States Census materials were destroyed in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. in 1921.{{Cite web |author=US Census Bureau, Census History Staff |title=Availability of 1890 Census |url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census_records/availability_of_1890_census.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170619145701/https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census_records/availability_of_1890_census.html |archive-date=June 19, 2017 |access-date=October 24, 2017 |website=census.gov}}
A storage vault fire in 1937 destroyed all the original negatives of Fox Film Corporation's pre-1935 movies."[http://books.google.com/books?id=5w0r8YKan04C&pg=PA339 $45,000 Fire Drives Families From Homes in Little Ferry]", Bergen Evening Record, July 9, 1937, p. 1. Quoted by Richard Koszarski in Fort Lee: The Film Town, Indiana University Press, 2005, pp. 339–341. {{ISBN|978-0-86196-652-3}}. Furthermore, the vast majority of the silent films produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are considered lost. According to a September 2013 report published by the United States Library of Congress, some 70 per cent of American silent feature films fall into this category.{{cite press release |date=December 4, 2013 |title=Library Reports on America's Endangered Silent-Film Heritage |url=https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/13-209.html |work=News from the Library of Congress |publisher=Library of Congress |issn=0731-3527 |access-date=March 7, 2014}}
Hundreds of libraries and archives were destroyed and their contents lost during World War II.[http://www.kakarigi.net/manu/preced.htm It Has Been Done Before! Reconstituting War-Ravaged Libraries] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/621GMI8wp?url=http://www.kakarigi.net/manu/preced.htm |date=September 27, 2011 }})Aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising, Planned destruction of Warsaw and Polish culture during World War II
A fire in the National Library of Peru destroyed highly valued historical works in 1943.{{youtube|id=7d1_XtHDLsM|title=Carlos Aguirre: El incendio de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú de 1943}}
More than 6,000 Tibetan monasteries were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, along with unique statues, tapestries and manuscripts.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7307495.stm Tibetan monks: A controlled life] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/61tZjAwvY?url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7307495.stm |date=September 22, 2011 }})
The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was shelled and burnt to the ground, along with thousands of irreplaceable texts, in the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992 during the Bosnian War.{{cite web |last=Riedlmayer |first=András |url=http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/bosnia.htm |title=Erasing the Past: The Destruction of Libraries and Archives in Bosnia-Herzegovina |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030124124738/http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/bosnia.htm |archive-date=January 24, 2003}}
Some of the original Apollo 11 moon landing tapes in high quality have been recorded over and lost.{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/16/moon-landing-tapes-erased |title=Houston, we have a problem: original moon walk footage erased |first1=Daniel |last1=Nasaw |first2=Richard |last2=Luscombe |date=July 16, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906235216/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/16/moon-landing-tapes-erased |archive-date=September 6, 2013 |via=The Guardian}} However, all the data was copied as archived in several locations at the time.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/not-unsolved-mysteries-the-lost-apollo-11-tapes |title=Not-Unsolved Mysteries: The “Lost” Apollo 11 Tapes |date=July 8, 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709180048/https://www.nasa.gov/feature/not-unsolved-mysteries-the-lost-apollo-11-tapes |archive-date=July 9, 2019 |publisher=NASA}}
In June 1981, during the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Jaffna Public Library was burnt by Sinhalese Buddhist mobs, destroying over 97,000 rare books and manuscripts in the process.{{cite web|url=http://swarajyamag.com/world/remembering-the-jaffna-public-library-destroyed-by-sinhalese-extremists|title=Remembering The Jaffna Public Library Destroyed By Sinhalese Extremists |work=Swarajya|date=June 1, 2016}}
During the Romanian Revolution of 1989, a fire was started in the Central University Library of Bucharest and over 500,000 books, along with 3,700 manuscripts, were burnt.[http://www.bcub.ro/home/istoric The Central University Library of Bucharest], official site: "the History".

Modern examples

Unfortunately, the destruction of knowledge has not ceased with Wikipedia's inception in 2001. Here are a few examples.

= 2000s =

File:Anna amalia bibliothek weimar brandschaden 03092004 nachmittag.jpg after the fire]]

In 2003, the Iraq National Library and Archive and other buildings were looted and burnt during the U.S. invasion.{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary/cilippics.html|title=Photos of the Iraq National Library 2003–08|publisher=|accessdate=July 5, 2012|archiveurl=http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20100427132359/http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary/cilippics.html|archivedate=April 27, 2010|url-status=dead}}
In 2004, part of the collection at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Germany was lost to a fire, less than two months before the collection was to be moved.{{in lang|de}} [http://www.anna-amalia-bibliothek.de/de/afterbrand.html Hilfe für Anna Amalia] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/61tW7bdeY?url=http://www.anna-amalia-bibliothek.de/de/afterbrand.html |date=September 22, 2011 }})
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake damaged or destroyed libraries and archives in several countries.
On October 17, 2004, a fire in the Parque Central Complex of Caracas, Venezuela, destroyed the tower's planoteca, an archive containing the entire history of the country's public building plans spanning two centuries, including aqueduct and sewer systems.{{cite news|title=“BOLA DE FUEGO” EXTENDIÓ EL DAÑO EN LA TORRE DE PARQUE CENTRAL|url=http://segured.com/bola-de-fuego-extendio-el-dano-en-la-torre-de-parque-central/|access-date=January 27, 2018|publisher=Segured}}
In 2009, the Historical Archive building of the City of Cologne collapsed.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,611311,00.html Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians] – Spiegel Online International ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/61tYsBQ6C?url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0%2C1518%2C611311%2C00.html |date=September 22, 2011 }})
On October 26, 2009, GeoCities was shut down, removing from public view 38 million pages built by users over 15 years.{{cite web|last=Shechmeister |first=Matthew |url=http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/11/geocities |title=Ghost Pages: A Wired.com Farewell to GeoCities |website=Wired.com |date=November 3, 2009 |accessdate=February 20, 2012}} It was only partially preserved by Archive Team.

= 2010s =

File:Nuestra Sra. de la Luz Parish Church, Loon, Bohol (Before and After 2013 Bohol Earthquake).jpg, Philippines, before and after the 2013 Bohol earthquake]]

In 2010, much of Haiti's heritage was damaged or destroyed in an earthquake.[http://haiti.si.edu/ Haiti Cultural Recovery Project] ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://haiti.si.edu/ |date=* }}) Little over a month later, Chile's heritage suffered similar destruction in its own earthquake.
The Egyptian Museum was looted during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.[http://hyperallergic.com/17815/egyptian-museum-damage/ Breaking: Images of Egyptian Museum Damage -UPDATE 34- King Tut Objects Damaged?] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/61t6Cdq22?url=http://hyperallergic.com/17815/egyptian-museum-damage/ |date=September 22, 2011 }})
In December 2011, a fire destroyed all but 30,000 of the 200,000 books in the historic Egyptian Scientific Institute.[http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/554351 Amid army crackdown, Egypt’s richest library set on fire] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/640PiklSv?url=http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/554351 |date=December 17, 2011 }})[http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/incendio/durante/disturbios/Cairo/destruye/original/Descripcion/Egipto/encargada/Napoleon/elpepucul/20111218elpepucul_1/Tes Un incendio durante los disturbios de El Cairo destruye el original de la 'Descripción de Egipto' encargada por Napoleón] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/642zGlJsP?url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/incendio/durante/disturbios/Cairo/destruye/original/Descripcion/Egipto/encargada/Napoleon/elpepucul/20111218elpepucul_1/Tes |date=December 19, 2011 }})
In May 2012, shrines forming part of the Timbuktu World Heritage Site were destroyed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18675539 Timbuktu's Sidi Yahia mosque 'attacked by Mali militants'] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/68x7PsErt?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18675539 |date=July 6, 2012 }})[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18665522 Islamists vow to smash every mausoleum in Timbuktu] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/68x7VGUF2?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18665522 |date=July 6, 2012 }})
Some buildings and churches were damaged in the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes.
In June 2012, many documents were burned during a fire at the secretarial building of Mumbai.[http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3554517.ece Towering inferno engulfs Mumbai’s seat of power] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/68x7Y97Sw?url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3554517.ece |date=July 6, 2012 }})[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9346940/Mumbai-government-building-engulfed-in-fire.html Mumbai government building engulfed in fire] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/68x7d6jvG?url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9346940/Mumbai-government-building-engulfed-in-fire.html |date=July 6, 2012 }})
Syrian heritage has been damaged, destroyed and looted during the Syrian Civil War.[http://ghn.globalheritagefund.com/uploads/documents/document_2107.pdf Damage to the soul: Syria's cultural heritage in conflict] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/69rQsEW5k?url=http://ghn.globalheritagefund.com/uploads/documents/document_2107.pdf |date=August 12, 2012 }})
On October 15, 2013, the Bohol earthquake destroyed and damaged several iconic sites.{{cite news|url=http://www.rappler.com/nation/41381-ten-churches-damaged-cebu-bohol-quake|title=Heartbreaking: 10 iconic churches in Bohol, Cebu damaged|work=Rappler|date=October 15, 2013|accessdate=October 15, 2013|author=Pia Ranada}}
On December 25, 2013, the Santuario da Virxe da Barca was destroyed by a fire resulting from lightning.{{cite news | url=http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2013/12/25/52babbf4268e3e88648b458d.html | title=Un rayo destruye un emblemático santuario en Muxía | date=December 25, 2013 | accessdate=December 25, 2013 | archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6M85Kl1qV | archivedate=December 25, 2013 | url-status=live| newspaper=El Mundo}}
The Al Sa’eh Library in Tripoli, Lebanon, with 80,000 books and manuscripts, was burnt down in January 2014.{{cite news|url=http://stateofmind13.com/2014/01/04/lebanon-loses-78000-books-to-terrorism-tripolis-infamous-al-saeh-library-burned/|title=Lebanon Loses 78000 Books To Terrorism: Tripoli’s “Al Sa’eh” Library Burned|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6MOmpHzK5|archivedate=January 5, 2014|url-status=live}}
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) damaged Mosul Museum artifacts, Mosul Public Library books and other cultural heritage sites like the ancient temples of Baalshamin and Bel.{{cite news|title=ISIS thugs take a hammer to civilisation: Priceless 3,000-year-old artworks smashed to pieces in minutes as militants destroy Mosul museum|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2970270/Islamic-State-fighters-destroy-antiquities-Iraq-video.html|newspaper=Daily Mail|accessdate=February 26, 2015}}
In Venezuela, starting in 2010s, due to the economic decline of the newspapers, the transition to the Internet, and growing restrictions on the press, caused the loss of significant parts of media digital archives.{{Cite web |last=Yonekura |first=Kaoru |date=December 2, 2020 |title=Periódicos sin archivos, país sin memoria |trans-title=Newspapers without archives, country without memory|url=https://www.cinco8.com/periodismo/periodicos-sin-archivos-pais-sin-memoria/ |access-date=June 9, 2023 |website=Cinco8 |language=es}}
On May 23, 2014, The Glasgow School of Art, known as 'The Mac' was badly damaged in a fire that destroyed the Mackintosh library, a second fire in 2018 finished the job destroying much of the rest of the building and the O2 ABC arena, and nightclub next door.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27541883|title=Glasgow School of Art: Fire crews battle to save building|date=May 23, 2014|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-44504659|title=Glasgow fire: Art school's Mackintosh building extensively damaged|date=June 15, 2018|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}
The April 25, 2015, Nepal earthquake damaged and destroyed centuries-old buildings in the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at Kathmandu Durbar Square.{{Cite news|url = http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32463406|title = Nepal landmarks flattened by the quake|last = |first = |date = |work = |access-date = April 25, 2015|via = }}
On April 26, 2016, National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi and its entire collection were destroyed by fire.{{cite news|author=Vidhi Doshi|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/26/massive-fire-guts-delhis-natural-history-museum |title=Fire guts Delhi's natural history museum |newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 26, 2016 |accessdate=April 26, 2016}}
A museum dedicated to Nicola Filotesio stood in the town of his birth until it was destroyed in the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake.La Repubblica, [http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2016/08/24/news/terremoto_nel_centro_italia_i_danni_al_patrimonio_artistico-146561797/ Terremoto nel centro Italia, i danni al patrimonio artistico]
A fire burned down the National Museum of Brazil on September 2, 2018, destroying more than 90 percent of its collection of more than 20{{nbsp}}million objects.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-45392668|title=Brazil's 200-year-old national museum hit by huge fire|date=September 3, 2018|accessdate=September 3, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://es.gizmodo.com/los-meteoritos-sobreviven-al-incendio-que-ha-devastado-1828785646|title=Los meteoritos, de lo poco que sigue en pie tras el incendio devastador en Río de Janeiro|date=September 3, 2018|website=Gizmodo en Español}} Many holdings, such as records of extinct languages, were one-of-a-kind and irreplaceably lost.{{cite news |last1=McCulloch |first1=Gretchen |title=Linguistics Division |url=https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/177712815507/folks-theres-nothing-left-from-the-linguistics |accessdate=April 23, 2020 |work=All Things Linguistic}}
In March 2019, Myspace announced that it had lost all music uploaded between 2003 and 2015.{{cite news |last1=Tiffany |first1=Kaitlyn |title=Myspace, which still exists, accidentally deleted 12 years’ worth of music |url=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/18/18271088/myspace-music-deleted-internet-archive-flickr-tumblr |accessdate=June 19, 2019 |work=Vox |date=March 18, 2019}}
By the late 2010s, several film archives in Venezuela started being damaged and lost due to neglect.{{Cite web |date=April 27, 2016 |title=Archivo de la Cinemateca Nacional, una historia de deterioro |url=https://elmiope.com/2016/04/27/cinemateca-nacional-archivo-filmico-deterioro/ |access-date=January 28, 2024 |website=El Miope |language=es}}

= 2020s =

In January 2020, a fire damaged or destroyed much of the collection of New York City's Museum of Chinese in America. Around 35,000 of the 85,000 items had been digitized and backed up before the fire.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fire-likely-destroyed-85000-relics-held-museum-chinese-america-180974061/|title=Fire at Museum of Chinese in America Caused Less Damage Than Initially Feared|last=Katz|first=Brigit|website=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=February 1, 2020}}
In April 2021, the University of Cape Town Jagger Library was damaged by a wildfire, threatening its collection of African antiquities.{{cite news |last1=Wroughton |first1=Lesley |title=South Africa wildfire that burned University of Cape Town, library of African antiquities is under control |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/18/south-africa-fire-university-cape-town/ |access-date=April 20, 2021 |work=Washington Post}}
On July 29, 2021, the Cinemateca Brasileira was hit by a fire,{{Cite web|url=https://www.uol.com.br/splash/noticias/2021/07/29/incendio-cinemateca-brasileira-sao-paulo.htm|title=Incêndio atinge unidade da Cinemateca Brasileira na Zona Oeste de SP |date=July 29, 2021|accessdate=July 29, 2021|language=pt-br}} the fifth in its history.{{Cite web|url=https://www.uol.com.br/splash/noticias/2021/07/29/historia-da-tv-e-do-cinema-queima-junto-com-o-quinto-incendio-da-cinemateca.htm|title= História da TV e do cinema queima junto com o quinto incêndio da Cinemateca |date=July 29, 2021|accessdate=July 29, 2021|language=pt-br}}
Many Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed as a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, the Kuindzhi Art Museum, and the Club 8-bit computer museum were destroyed by bombardment, while cultural centers like the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and the Korolenko Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library were damaged.
On 2023–24, in the context of the Israel–Hamas war, over 100 cultural heritage landmarks have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. This includes archives, libraries, and museums, notably the complete destruction of the Central Archives of Gaza City.{{Cite web|url=https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/|title=Israeli Damage to Archives, Libraries, and Museums in Gaza, October 2023 – January 2024 – Librarians and Archivists with Palestine}}
The January 2025 Southern California wildfires destroyed several important locations, including The Bunny Museum.{{Cite news |date=January 8, 2025 |title=The Bunny Museum in Altadena burns to the ground amid the Eaton Fire |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/video/the-bunny-museum-in-altadena-burns-to-the-ground-amid-the-eaton-fire/ |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=CBS News}}

Future threats

File:Geolocated images in Wikimedia Commons 2016-04-16.png is imbalanced (5.2M geolocated images in the map). We must preserve the current world to the future generations. Imagine a project like Geograph Britain and Ireland[http://www.geograph.org.uk The Geograph Britain and Ireland project] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/68xCg8x8m?url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/ |date=July 6, 2012 }}) but globally.]]

Today, many of the world's languages are endangered or nearly extinct.{{Cite web|url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/about/|title=The Endangered Languages Project|last=|first=|date=|website=EndangeredLanguages.com|access-date=January 16, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/endangered-languages|title=Endangered Languages – Ethnologue|last=|first=|date=|website=Ethnologue.com|access-date=January 16, 2019}} In some cases where parents have stopped teaching an endangered language to their children, the language is understood by only a few elderly speakers. The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a publicly accessible digital library of material on the nearly 7,000 known human languages.[https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject The Rosetta Project items] from The Long Now Foundation

Furthermore, hundreds of websites are closed every day on the Internet; the average life of a web page is only 77 days.[http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php Internet Archive Frequently Asked Questions] ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/629ouhKYT?url=http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php |date=October 3, 2011 }}) Those websites work in many cases as references. Projects like the Internet Archive or WebCitation and volunteer groups like Archive Team[http://archiveteam.org Archive Team] website ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/629owKO0B?url=http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title%3DMain_Page |date=October 3, 2011 }}) save copies of some of them, but many others are lost forever. This issue may affect Wikimedia projects too, and mirrors are needed to assure long-term preservation of the data.

Wikipedia and its sister projects can—and must—save all these forms of knowledge, through creating articles, uploading images and recordings to Wikimedia Commons, preserving languages in Wiktionary and transcribing books into Wikisource. Events like Wiki Loves Monuments may help to immortalize monuments around the world before they are damaged or destroyed.[http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu/ Wiki Loves Monuments 2011] – European website ({{webarchive |url=http://www.webcitation.org/628dCbErx?url=http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu/ |date=October 2, 2011 }})

There is a deadline. This is a battle against time.

Gallery

File:Alcazar de Madrid siglo XVII.jpg | Royal Alcazar of Madrid was consumed by fire in 1734. More than 500 paintings were lost.

File:NewYorkSocietyForTheSuppressionOfVice.jpg | Symbol of New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, advocating book-burning

File:1933-may-10-berlin-book-burning.JPG | Book burning in Berlin, May 1933

File:Quema de libros.jpg | Burning left-wing books during the early days of the Pinochet military regime

File:Evstafiev-bosnia-cello.jpg | A cello player in the destroyed National Library, Sarajevo

File:Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Earthquake in Chile.jpg | The damaged Museum of Contemporary Art in Chile

File:Bufo periglenes2.jpg | Golden toad (Bufo periglenes), now extinct

File:Brand Anna Amalia 22.30Uhr.JPG | Library fire at the Anna Amalia library, 2004

File:The destroyed sixstory cologne city archive.jpg | Collapsed Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, March 2009

File:Chiesa di San Paolo - Mirabello - Province of Ferrara - 2012 Northern Italy earthquake - (1).jpg | Church of Saint Paul in Mirabello, Ferrara

File:Al Munisìpi ad Sant Agustèn.jpg | The town hall of Sant'Agostino

File:15346 Purila mõis.jpg | Mural painting in the Purila Manor, Estonia, almost erased by age

File:Agassiz in the Concrete.jpg | Fallen statue of zoologist Louis Agassiz after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

File:Aleppo-Great-mosque-Alp.jpg | The Great Mosque of Aleppo was damaged in fighting in 2013

|Destruction of the statue of Lenin in Kiev.

File:2018-01-09-Abriss St. Lambertus (Immerath)-6148.jpg | Demolition of the Church of St. Lambertus, Immerath (2018) to make room for a surface mine

File:Fire at Museu Nacional 05.jpg | Fire at the National Museum of Brazil

File:Incendie Notre Dame de Paris.jpg | Notre-Dame de Paris fire

=Articles=

=Documentaries=

Biblioteca en guerra (2009, Blanca Calvo & Ramón Salaberria)
Cicatrices de Sarajevo (2012, Miguel Ángel Viñas)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZxI3nFVJs Digital Amnesia] (2014, Bregtje van der Haak)
Digital dark age: help, we're disappearing! (2004, Jörg Daniel Hissen & Peter Moers)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec_-fgy3EGY Internet Archive] (2012, Jonathan Minard)
Las cajas españolas (2004, Alberto Porlan)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TEgrdAlofk Lost Forever] (2011, Paul Mariano & Kurt Norton)
Metrópolis refundada (2010, Evangelina Loguercio)
Rescatando sombras. Cine, muerte y memoria (2012, Franco Lorenzana)
The Destruction of Memory (2016, Tim Slade)
The End of Memory? (2015, Vincent Amouroux)
The House of History (1996, Quadir Taheri)

=Essays=

User:Emijrp/All Human Knowledge (userbox {{tl|User preserve all human knowledge}})
Wikipedia:There is no deadline
Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a work in progress
Wikipedia:Build content to endure

=Projects=

References

External links

Translations for this essay ([http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:There_is_a_deadline&oldid=459294502 permalink] to original version) are more than welcome: [http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Kurier&oldid=95468817 German] ([http://www.webcitation.org/63ZvB1NVn webcite]), [http://blog.wikimedia.fr/il-y-a-urgence-3810 French] ([http://www.webcitation.org/63ZuwGg5b webcite]), [http://emijrp.blogspot.com/2011/12/una-batalla-contra-el-tiempo.html Spanish], [https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipédia:Há_uma_data_final Portuguese], [https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:Hi_ha_una_data_l%C3%ADmit Catalan], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lotta_contro_il_tempo Italian], [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Er_is_een_deadline Nederlands], [https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Exist%C4%83_un_termen_limit%C4%83 Romanian], [https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Det_finns_en_deadline Swedish], [https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/ويكيبيديا:هناك_موعد_نهائي Arabic].
[http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/things-get-lost-capture-them/ Things get lost. Capture them] (Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 blog post by Elke)
[http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/photos-of-destroyed-heritage/ Photos of destroyed heritage] (Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 blog post) ([http://wlm.org.ua/vtrachene-nepovtorne Ukrainian version])
[https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/04/joel-aldor-preserve-filipino-architecture/ Joel Aldor wants to preserve historic Filipino architecture one photo at a time] (Wikimedia Blog, 2014)
[https://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/2015-earthquake-in-nepal-a-wake-up-call-for-monument-documentation/ 2015 Earthquake in Nepal: A Wake-up Call for Monument Documentation] (Wiki Loves Monuments blog post, 2018)
[http://laughingsquid.com/archive-corps-a-volunteer-collective-to-help-quickly-save-physical-archives-before-they-are-lost/ Archive Corps, A Volunteer Collective To Help Quickly Save Physical Archives Before They Are Lost] (see also Archive Team)
[https://github.com/WikiTeam/wikiteam WikiTeam] – Volunteers group to preserve wikis
[http://tools.wmflabs.org/wmcounter/ Wikimedia projects edits counter] – Total edits in Wikimedia projects (near real time)

Category:Wikipedia essays about building the encyclopedia