So clearly, there is a lot of data out there to be stored. And the vast majority of that data isn't printed -- it is being stored digitally and created on computers via email, forums, social networks, blog posts, video sharing, bookmarking, chat, etc. A lot of that data isn't necessarily something we need to save (who needs an archive of every email I send to my mom, for example?), but what of the data that we do want to keep for the future? The posts on this blog, or thoughtful debates taking place on forums, or breaking news videos published on YouTube, for example.

The Internet is very transient in nature, things often move at a breakneck pace. The main page of a blog like ReadWriteWeb might change 10-15 times in a day. The main page of CNN.com might change far more than that. How do we archive information when the technology to read it, and indeed the information itself, changes so fast?

About 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson sold his personal library of 6,000 books to the Library of Congress. About 150 years ago, more than half were destroyed in a fire. But today, all 6,000 of them have been recovered or recreated and will go on display at the LoC. Now we're living in the so-called information age, where almost a gigabyte of new data is being created each year for every man, woman, and child on earth. But what's going to happen it to it all 250 years from now? "Is digital content too ephemeral to last?" wondered Leland Rucker. Will digital information have the same lifespan as printed books?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, so please let us know in the comments what you think the future holds for the massive flood of information we're creating today.

"From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and -- most importantly -- wisdom," said Matt Raymond, the LoC's blogger-in-chief. "One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it."

The photos, which are already available on the Library's photo and prints page (along with over 1 million others), may not be on Flickr permanently. The length of the pilot program will be determined by the amount of interest and activity shown by Flickr users, according to the LoC.

According to George Oates, at Flickr, the pilot program with the Library has two main goals, "firstly, to increase exposure to the amazing content currently held in the public collections of civic institutions around the world, and secondly, to facilitate the collection of general knowledge about these collections, with the hope that this information can feed back into the catalogues, making them richer and easier to search."

Flickr also said today that the site now houses over 20 million tags which help to power the search function of the site.