Our Web in Feb month has got me thinking about the impermanence of so much internet content.
Companies put a great deal of useful information online, but rarely have a strategy for maintaining or persevering it. This is where the British Library comes in. Preserving the UK web is a natural extension of our traditional role of preserving UK printed material.
So if you are researching business that no longer exist, or blogs which have ceased to be updated, have a look at the UK Web Archive
Collecting since 2004, the UK Web Archive contains websites of cultural and research relevance relating to the UK. Its purpose is to collect, preserve and give permanent access to key UK websites for future generations. It is a selective and unique archive, built on nominations from subject specialists in and outside of the Library, alongside public nominations. With over 10,000 different websites, the archive is one of the library’s largest ‘born-digital’ collections.
The archive team have made searching easier by adding indexing terms (meta-tags) and added research tools such as Ngram visualisations.
You can read more about developments in the archive on their blog
This is the good post for UK Web Archive websites of cultural and research relevance. It’s a great deal of useful information online.