The beauty of a footnote in a book or an article is finding that getting to the original source only requires a trip to the library. But as more and more literature lives — and is born — online, there’s a growing problem. Big enough that some of the most prestigious institutions in the country are banding together to try to better preserve that literature with a new project called Perma.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, joins Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson to discuss.