Thursday, February 3, 2011

Those hard copies of course catalogs, University annual reports, and department newsletters are becoming a thing of the past. In their place are “born digital” records – publications created and available exclusively online. This poses a preservation challenge to the University Archives, which has traditionally collected paper versions of these records. Web sites are not always permanent, unlike paper records, and are often at risk for loss. UI Libraries’ Preservation Department, the UI Archives and other units in the Libraries are now using ArchiveIt, a service provided by the Internet Archive based in Palo Alto, CA. It allows us to select University-created web sites for scheduled capture and future access. The Libraries began using this service in 2008 – about the time of the flood – and since that time has been tracking over 200 selected University web sites for on-line preservation. Recently links to the service were added to the Libraries’ web site.

To access the Internet Archive’s gateway to preserved UI web sites, go to http://archive-it.org/public/partner.html?id=120 and choose from the four collections available. Or go to the University Archives’ web site at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/archives/ and click on “Internet Archive.” It is also linked from the archives’ resource guides gateway at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/archives/faq/.