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Re: Archiving websites



One word only on the cost of such technology (I make no claims about
preservation quality, technology, or anything else.)

Anyone with a computer these days has Adobe's Acrobat READER - this is the
basic program that allows us all to read PDF format documents, and is free.
Most people aren't aware that Adobe sells Acrobat, which allows you to
CREATE (rather than just read), edit, and manipulate PDFs.  One of its
features is "web capture", which allows you to type in a URL and copy
everything off the site, plus you can make the links active, so it more
resembles the original HTML.

Since the program is under $300, I'd make the case that web archiving is
possible without breaking the bank.  Is it a long-term preservation option?
Weeeelllll, maybe.  PDF is virtually universal, so one could make a case for
it, but I agree with Chris that it's not something we should jump on right
away without taking a long, careful look.

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Flynn [mailto:cflynn@FNA.FSN.UIDAHO.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 1:05 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Archiving websites


Marty,

We have discussed this topic a few times. I think that where I am leaning is
to not rely on the technology to "capture" web pages for archival storage at
this time. There a couple of tools that have been developed to do this, they
are expensive and I am not sure how well proven they are. I usually argue
that we need to identify and schedule the documentation for the web site,
the policies, procedures, content, context and structure associated with the
web sites as they develop and grow. View the web site as a business process,
capture the information that most completely describes it but who wants to
keep an invoice forever.

Chris Flynn

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