Societies are facing fundamental transformations as digital technologies are changing the ways we live, interact, work, study and read. The social and cultural impact of the digitization process on reading skills and practices remains under-researched. While digital technologies offer much potential for new forms of reading, recent empirical research shows that the digital environment is having a negative impact on reading, in particular on long-form reading and reading comprehension. It also remains unclear whether the transition to digital media actually lives up to its promise of improving learning outcomes. Recent studies of various kinds indicate a decline of crucial higher-level reading competencies and practices, such as critical and conscious reading, slow reading, non-strategic reading and long-form reading. Current educational policy, meanwhile, relies heavily on monocultural standardized testing of basic reading capabilities and on growing use of digital technologies. Reading education, assessment, research and policy-making should focus more on higher-level reading practices in both adults and children in order to understand the development of reading skills and practices in an age increasingly dependent on a ubiquitous digital infrastructure.

The greatest risk in preservation is lack of motivation. Why we should be in need of preservation at all, why we should need the enduring access to information, is far from agreed upon. Correspondingly, preservation institutions are continually in danger. Thus one of the most important functions of institutions is to survive. The public motivation of preservation is one of the foremost tasks of preservation institutions. It is important to analyze the pros and cons of some of the most popular current motivational discourses – those based on the terms cultural treasures, cultural heritage, and cultural memory – and examine the lesser known but more effective alternatives such as intergenerational justice, tradition as an ongoing conversation, and keeping the present accessible. In doing that, the article addresses fundamental questions concerning the function, the raison d’ȇtre, of libraries and archives. The paper concludes with a proposition for further research.

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