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Re: Archiving Websites



Having been involved with creating a web site that is now about to be donated to an archives, I have recommended that the techie-creators (who are still available for consultation) save it on a CD-rom, making sure that the internal hyperlinks work (sometimes transferring information screws up the paths ... but this is an easy problem to solve, especially if you're the person who created the site in the first place), and give it to the archives. No other programme seems necessary, especially since html coding is so basic.  Obviously, the hyperlinks to outside web site will not work (and will probably become defunct over time anyway), but leaving the link s in the archived pages will indicate what the original site was linked to. 

 I've also asked several people involved with this site (which was initiated in early 1997 and is still operating, but in very different form) to write down their design process (e.g., who their audience was and  why they made the various choices re: layout, content, linking, etc. ) and any supporting technical information that might help future archivists / users.

The other major thing I did while involved with the site was ask the main techies to save "slices" of the site as it grew and changed, so that the life of the site would be documented overtime.  Fortunagely, they did save it about every month during the period of greatest use and change.  I think this will be an especially valuable aspect of the archived site, since future researchers will be able see how this dynamic tool changed over time.

Hope this helps.

Sally 



********************************************************

 Sally Gibson
     Archivist

     City of Toronto Archives
     255 Spadina Road
     Toronto, Ontario
     Canada  M5R 2V3
     
    tel.:      (416) 392-5561
    fax:      (416) 392-9685 
    email:  sgibson0@city.toronto.on.ca

>>> Wayne Miller <wayne.miller@PLATTSBURGH.EDU> 08/30/00 03:06pm >>>
May we pick up this thread again. I realize there has been a sporadic
discussion on the list for years. In early August it surfaced again, and Cal
Lee's response to a query was excellent. He pointed to some of the main
problems involved and several pieces of software and how they worked. I was
hoping more listers would respond giving their 'best practices' but have not
seen any other contributions. I even checked the archives to make sure I
didn't miss any.

So, anyone out there archiving websites? What are you using? How well does
it work?

Wayne Miller
Plattsburgh State U. of NY

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