Web Archiving Service: Capturing the Intangible
The UC Web Archiving Service (WAS) is an exciting new tool that enables UC researchers and scholars to capture, curate, and preserve Web sites. This free service creates permanent archives of born-digital content on Internet sites and makes it available to researchers everywhere.
Many of you may have searched other Web capturing sites, such as, the CyberCemetery (govinfo.library.unt.edu) or Wayback Machine (aka Internet Archive, www.archive.org/index.php) hoping to find material that is no longer present on the current Web site of an organization or government agency. Now it is possible to customize your own captures and to make them searchable in the Web Archives (webarchives.cdlib.org).
Some of the select collections now available in Web Archives include the 2007 Southern California Wildfires Web Archives (CDL), Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp Web Archive (New York Universities, 2007), AFL-CIO-Change to Win (UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies, 2009), and the Orange County Government Information Archives (UC Irvine, 2008). Within each archived collection it is possible to search for material by keyword or document file type. There is a six-month embargo before collections appear in the Web Archives due to guidelines in Section 108 of the US Copyright Code.
To develop an archive, explore the WAS introductory page (was.cdlib.org/user/login), then go to the “Tools and Training” section and review the User, Project Administration, and Rights Management Practice guides, along with the webcast demos. We are looking forward to working with you to develop new web archives for UCI.
If you are interested in using this tool, we encourage you to contact the librarian in your subject area (www.lib.uci.edu/about/contact/subject-librarians.html) or contact Yvonne Wilson, the UCI WAS Institution Administrator, Langson Library, Reference Department (ymwilson@uci.edu or x47362).