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Archiving websites



Glad to see this discussion renewed. Clearly, their are several big problems with archiving. The mention of .ASP, for example, as well as Cold Fusion, point to the fact that many 'pages' are actually created on demand and quickly go out of existence. More to the point as the data bases from which these pages are drawn including Oracle, Access, and other 'traditional' data bases, but now include things live XML files and the stylesheets and transformations that deliver a viewable product. Which 'page' or file is the one that should be archived? Since 'viewing' the xml file really doesn't convey the information it represents (except to those who really care to extract/interpret it) and the file is not visible except to those with editorial privileges, this quickly descends into a technical morass.
 
Obviously, for static pages there is always the option for a paper (gasp) output. Or, there is the option of leaving the job to someone who specializes in this task, like the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/index.html
 
But I would like to introduce a wrinkle that I now face. Our college is about to do away with it's paper catalog. That is, course descriptions will be available online only. We respond to several queries each year from former students who require documentation (course descriptions) for courses they took five, ten, twenty years ago. This may be for degree, transfer, or certification purposes. Even if we 'archive' the website, how can we in all honesty certify, as I am sometimes required to do, that a copy of the site is a 'true representation' of the course description from that time?
 
Wayne Miller
Plattsburgh State U of NY