Topic: The Wayback Machine

[Capt. Mike]

British Library creates archive of defunct Web
   
 
Mar 1, 1:11 PM (ET)
 
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
LONDON (AP) - The British Library is creating an archive of the country's
defunct Web sites to preserve snapshots of the ever-changing Internet for
posterity.
The library is already charged with keeping a copy of every published work
distributed in Britain and Ireland. In 2003 that directive was extended to
electronic materials such as compact discs and online publications.
Now the British Library said it has begun trawling through the Web and
making archival copies of sites of historic interest - including those once
maintained by now-bankrupt companies such as Woolworths, Web pages spawned
after the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks in London and Internet coverage of
Britain's last general election that year.
Library spokesman Jacob Lant said the project was aimed at filling "a
digital black hole in the nation's memory," noting that the library had been
unable to turn up any online evidence of such events as the 1997 death of
Princess Diana.
"We've already lost a huge amount of data that we'll never see again," he
said.
The library said it has so far archived 6,000 sites.
Several projects around the world are also aimed at archiving Web sites, not
just dead ones but those that have changed over the years. Among them is the
Internet Archive's Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org/ .

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I hope this peaks some interest.

Mike