Archivists Make the New York Times

Reblogged from The Cambridge Room:

"Archiving in the Digital Era," a video from the New York Times, published April 29, 2013.

Today's New York Times had a nice article and short video on archivists working in New York City, titled "Leaving Cloister of Dusty Offices, Young Archivists Meet Like Minds."  The article focuses on the social aspect of NYC archivists and the video features archivists' excitement around and challenge with the digital era. 

Read more… 17 more words

This is great! Felicia

Preserving History

~• 1867 illustrated newsapaper periodical (periodico ilustrado) titled “5 de Mayo de 1862″ •~

««•••ooo••••ooo•••»»

“Any fool can make
history, but it takes
a genius to write it.”

••••» Oscar Wilde

««•••ooo••••ooo•••»»

I enjoy doing things for people. It makes me feel good to help others when I’m needed. Recently I was asked by two friends to help them preserve some newspapers. One had an awesome newspaper that is close to 120 years old. The other is former journalist with an accomplished record who is looking to preserve a historical first.

I take pride in being an archivist and I’m glad that my professional knowledge can extend beyond the confines of a repository. I spent the day preparing for preservation endeavors by picking up the supplies I need. Since newspapers are highly acidic, it is good to do whatever can be done to preserve them.

I had an idea last night with regard to the digitization of the newspapers. Hopefully the idea is successful. I will try a new technique to make an access copy. Indeed I was born to be an archivist. I do love what I do.

"It shall be set in imperishable crystal to be a heirloom of my house:" Using crystal as digital storage

Reblogged from The Lord of the Archives: The Fellowship of the IMPs:

Recently, the possible use of DNA as a means of data storage has been making the news. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21145163

However, there is also another alternative method of data storage that is being developed. Hitatchi is working to make a quartz-based storage device. http://www.techspot.com/news/50313-hitachi-unveils-quartz-based-storage-data-may-last-100-million-years.html

According to the article, much like DNA, this method also has the potential to last for thousands of years.

Read more… 118 more words

This is an awesome post! ~~Felicia

~Thank You for the Cyber Props~

A special thanks for those who decided to see My Voyage Through Time fit for Blog of the Year. I do appreciate that. Thanks to Enchanted Solitaire (Morrighan), Merio, Writersfield (T~Sizzles), The Arkside of Thought (Sahm), and Fictional Machines (J.E. Lattimer). You are all amazing and talented people!

Wow~~ It was about due time I officially thanked the people who have contributed to the success of my site.

From August 18, 2012 thru January 15, 2013 I had received 14 awards from my peers and I want to take the time to thank all of you. Unfortunately I do not have it in me to do all of things I am supposed to do for each acceptance, still I want to say thanks. I appreciate each and every one of you thinking of this site when you had so many wonderful sites to choose from.

I give most props to Mita Blu for her creativity when making up fantastic awards for me and her man Sahm. She gave me a personalized “Striking Mind Award,” and she gave Sahm a “Full of Darkness Award.” I loved that! Thanks Blu! You can see an update to my most recent awards if you wish on my Awards from Cyber Space page. Also~ a big thanks to GMAN’s Galaxy, Enchanted Solitaire, Gothic Hearts and Bat Wings, River’s Flow, Heart of Paradise, and Dear Kitty.

A special thanks for those who decided to see My Voyage Through Time fit for Blog of the Year. I do appreciate that. Thanks to Enchanted Solitaire (Morrighan), Merio, Writersfield (T~Sizzles), The Arkside of Thought (Sahm), and Fictional Machines (J.E. Lattimer). You are all amazing and talented people!

Keep reading my friends!

Sincerely~

Felicia

The Knowledge Martyr~ Aaron Swartz

~RIP Aaron Swartz~
May you reach binary heaven.

 

“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.”

~~~Aaron Swartz
Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto (2008)

Frank Kingdom once said that “questions are the creative acts of intelligence.” His words are so powerful. Tonight I was going to post about something else, but when I signed on to the internet, I learned about a tragedy. I am saddened to learn that one of the greatest pioneers of the open movement has paid the ultimate price in his quest for knowledge.

Aaron Swartz the founder of Demand Progress, paid with his life on Friday. The 26 year old was just a baby in the world of technology. He was facing federal charges, close to 40 years in prison, and at least a million dollars in fines for his part in a political movement demanding the freedom of information. In the words of Herodotus,”this is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.”

The young genius is said to have killed himself, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s true. If information and knowledge is power, how much can you demand before the powers that be make sure you disappear? I used the digital library JSTOR (Journal Storage) just yesterday to write my last post Seduce the Moon. Swartz has hacked that library and some close to him say he was depressed about the decisions he made.

As a hero, Swartz authored the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto. He didn’t sign the manifesto because he did not believe in the ownership of information. Swartz called it “outrageous” and “unacceptable” that scientific articles are provided “to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South.” If you have never read or do not know of this manifesto, I would encourage you to read it.

The dark haired champion said “we need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.”

He has been called a political martyr, a hacktivist, a web genius, a felon, a committed liberator of information, a hero, a distinguished hacker, a pioneer, and an open access guerrilla. Swartz was all of those things~ though I think he was indeed a felon with good intentions. He was more brave than I. May he rest in peace among the 1z and 0z. May his soul reach binary heaven where knowledge is freely available.

A Digital Preservation Powerhouse

Wow~ what an amazing presentation just made by the inspiring “digital pioneer” Martha Anderson. Ms. Anderson is a powerhouse with the Library of Congress who will be retiring in a few weeks. I am sure she will still be active in my realm because she is so passionate about what she does. In a December 4, 2012 article on a Library of Congress blog, Mike Ashenfelder referred to Ms. Anderson as a woman “who is one of the driving forces behind American Memory,” the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA). Mr. Ashenfelder is right about this woman having “an effect on most people she comes in contact with,” when you “watch her work a room at a conference.” I plan on writing more about her presentation when I return to New Mexico. Following are a few of her most powerful quotes and a great proverb she noted.

“When spiders unite, they can take down a lion.”
~African Proverb

“Never underestimate a community who is dedicated to a cause, works together, shows support, and learns from one another.”
~Martha Anderson, Library of Congress

“When a bunch of spiders get together, they are seen as a coherent whole.”
~Martha Anderson, Library of Congress

“Metadata is currency. It is touched more than you think and it is a living thing.”
~Martha Anderson, Library of Congress

“There is a lot of stuff endangered while we wait for the perfect access.”
~Martha Anderson, Library of Congress

Preservationista: Save the Bits

~Preservationista and Save the Bits Pins I was given at the Best Practices Exchange 2012~

I loved these two
pins someone gave
me here at the BPE
Conference. After
talking to a woman
from the Maryland
State Archives for
a bit, I received a
preservationista pin!
Haha~ now that’s
awesome!
•••••••••••••••••••••
Preserve History
•••••••••••••••••••••

State of the Digital Union

State of the Digital Union Presentation by Doug Robinson~ Executive Director of the NASCIO

There is a full house for the opening session of the 2012 Best Practices Exchange here in Annapolis. Representation has come from archives, libraries and information offices all over the country and a few from over sea. Doug Robinson is the Executive Director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. He is delivering a well informed paper titled State of the Digital Union: Balancing Legacy and Innovation.

Some of the issues mentioned by Mr. Robinson include: technology environments; attracting and retaining professionals; state CIO priorities; disaster planning and recovery; cyber security; hacktivism; tech trends; budgets; cloud computing and adoption; social media; digital archiving; IT consolidation; content management; wireless subscribers; data traffic; smartphone users; and text messaging.

I am a little worried about seeing archives and document management as number 10 on his “priority list,” but at least he has it on the list! Here is his priority list at a glance.

1~ cloud computing
2~ mobile workforce technologies
3~ virtualization
4~ legacy applications
5~ identity and access management
6~ enterprise resource planning
7~ security enhancement
8~ networking
9~ business intelligence and analytics
10~ archives

Dream Job: Implementing Open Source Preservation Solutions for Digital Collections

This totally rocks! Today the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a news release courtsey of Dell titled “New Preservation Archive.” The release says “working with Dell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created a new digital archive for its university system that simplifies how it manages digital assets, including rare books and faculty intellectual property output such as research documents, papers and lectures — content typically produced in multiple digital formats. The new archive reduces storage costs and streamlines the management, retention and protection of scholarly works through a solution based on the Dell DX Object Storage Platform and DuraSpace Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software. Critical for the university was the ability to meet today’s needs and to scale efficiently over time as digital content evolves and grows.” This is awesome! Universities are taking advantage of open solutions, but they have people who know how to build and manage the systems. DuraSpace also rocks! I worked with DSpace when I built small scale, virtual digital repositories from the ground up in my UofA program. I really need to work toward that Doctoral Program. The full news release is below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dell and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Create Preservation Archive with Open Source Fedora Repository Software

Date : 9/27/2012~~ Round Rock, Texas

~~~One of the largest public university libraries in the country uses open source software on Dell DX Object Storage Platform to manage and protect digital assets.

~~~University lowers storage total cost of ownership with scalability to support archive growth.

Working with Dell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created a new digital archive for its university system that simplifies how it manages digital assets, including rare books and faculty intellectual property output such as research documents, papers and lectures — content typically produced in multiple digital formats. The new archive reduces storage costs and streamlines the management, retention and protection of scholarly works through a solution based on the Dell DX Object Storage Platform and DuraSpace Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software. Critical for the university was the ability to meet today’s needs and to scale efficiently over time as digital content evolves and grows.

Explosive data growth and large data sets make it more difficult for libraries, museums and government organizations to efficiently preserve and protect documents, multimedia content and digital assets for future generations. As one of the largest public university libraries in the world, the Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign manages the intellectual property and digital content created by faculty, administrators and students — from one-of-a-kind, fragile books that can create 600 to 800 image objects once digitized, to retiring professors’ collections of work over a 20- to 25-year tenure.

After considering its digital archive and retention goals, the University of Illinois customized a version of Fedora Repository Software and combined it with the Dell DX Object Storage Platform. The platform automatically replicates an archive master and a working master of each file to simplify data backup, storing one copy on the University’s main library cluster and a second copy in its engineering library. In the future, a third copy will be archived in the cloud to further simplify data access and sharing across the University system. The Dell DX Platform also produces metadata to manage the archive, identifying files that need to be transitioned from older to newer digital formats for future generations. And the DX Object Storage Platform’s plug and play framework lets archivists add additional retention capacity to the digital archive as it is needed, simply and efficiently.

Quotes

John Mullen, Vice President, Education and State & Local Government, Dell
“With the transition from stacks and the Dewey Decimal system to bytes, clusters and metadata, academic libraries need a digital archiving strategy that addresses their immediate and future needs. The University of Illinois’ innovative and open approach to this challenge is a practical model for any university.”

Thomas Habing, Research Programmer, Research and Development, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Library
“This opportunity provides us with extra resources to further the development of the Library’s digital preservation archive. It also allows us to continue to utilize Open Source Fedora Commons Repository Software while at the same time employing a commercially-supported object storage platform with many digital preservation features, such as replication and validation, which we will not need to implement ourselves. Plus, we can share all of our development efforts back to the open source community which helps everyone, including Dell.”

Michele Kimpton, CEO of DuraSpace
“The Open Source Fedora repository platform is used by more than 400 institutions around the globe. We believe commercial implementations, such as Dell, provide our users with the best of both worlds — hardware and services from a large-scale commercial vendor integrated with open source software, Fedora Repository. The total package provides users with greater transparency and durability in the long run.”

About University of Illinois
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has long been ranked among the nation’s most distinguished teaching and research institutions. Its diverse, world-class programs reflect the mission of a land-grant university. The largest public university in Illinois, the Urbana campus was chartered by the state in 1867 as the Illinois Industrial University and opened its doors to students in 1868. Its library is ranked highly nationally and globally, and its collections and services are used heavily by students, faculty, and scholars. For more information, please visit http://www.library.illinois.edu.

About DuraSpace
DuraSpace is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. DuraSpace software and services are used worldwide as solutions for open access, institutional repositories, digital libraries, digital archives, data curation, virtual research environments and more. The organization’s open-source technology portfolio includes DSpace open access repository application and the Fedora open repository platform. DuraSpace is the home of DuraCloud, a cloud-based software service that leverages existing cloud infrastructure to enable durability and access to digital content. For more information, visit http://www.duraspace.org.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com.

My Lil Cali Movie

It’s finally done. My lil Cali movie is uploaded to the My Voyage Through Time YouTube channel. I also embedded the movie below. It is far from perfect and I realized after the transfer that some of the pictures went by fast, so maybe I’ll put a gallery up later. I hope you like it   We even completed a voice over- so turn the volume up! From August 3-August 9, 2012 we were on vacation in California and here is a short peek at the mischief!!

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

This is Part 1 of an 18 min. movie created by me. I created the movie to share, and to document the trip for my personal archive. In this part you will see clips in the following order: our arrival in California; Disneyland (Indiana Jones ride, Star Tours ride, Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters ride, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain ride, Storybook Canal Boats ride, Mickey’s Soundsational Parade, Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Haunted Mansion, Firework show, Downtown Disney, Jedi Academy, and the Fantasmic water and light show); and then California Adventure (Cars Land, Sorcerers Workshop, and Paradise Pier).

This is Part 2— In this part you will see clips in the following order: the Disney water and light show World of Color; Universal Studios (Transformers ride, Jurassic Park ride, Studio Tour, and Universal City Walk); then Sea World and Huntington Beach.

Press On With Imagination

Cali DVD Screen Shot_8.12.2012

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is
limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
~~~Albert Einstein

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.”
~~~John F. Kennedy

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Well after two days— it is done. Late last night, I finished my Cali DVD project. I have completed a haphazard masterpiece which could have been better! Like a virtual Jacobus de Varagine, I compiled my Golden Legend, a personal collection of California memories. To complete this project, I used: two computers (cross platform); five software programs (2 of them open source); an iPod Touch; and a microphone (digital audio input). These tools were used to sort through, organize, and edit over 200 photographs and several GB of video footage. One of the programs was used to complete the voice overs (audio) that I put into the movie. I selected those things I felt were the best of the best. Hey- it was like the digital Olympics up in this house- haha- only the best made the final cut! The DVD was screened today to a few different family members- and it was fun. I have to say that Daryn and I had a blast recording the voice overs. We laughed and laughed. By all means, the project isn’t perfect, but I wanted to have it ready to show today. My next step will be to track down a video host which will allow me to upload the entire movie (close to 20 minutes) into the cloud. If I am not happy with anything I find, I will break down the movie into four segments and upload it to YouTube. This way- I can share my trip with everyone. I really want my friend Elaine to see it. She lives in Corona (CA) and I saw her on my last day of the trip. Hopefully- I can get that done within the week. I am such a lover of technology. What can I say? I am in awe by the things we can do as humans with our minds. I really think that the two quotes above sum that up. Computers are nothing without the people who create them- the engineer, the coder, the script writer, the mad brainiac. These are the real computers behind the computers right? Each and every one of these masterminds has one thing in common- they understand that they are only limited by the power of their imaginations.

Data…Data…Data and The Evil Queen

A digital rendering of my
Disney avatar “The Evil Queen”
‘cept that wasn’t a very evil face ha???

On our trip I loaded down my iPod Touch with a grippa data. No joke! I have been sifting through the virtual archive attempting to find a quick and productive way to share the memories. I am making a DVD for my family members to check out. Today I played a bit with a movie and voice overs- even Daryn tested it out (though he seemed more interested in what he called “B-Boxin’”— is that still around?? Haha) I’ll also take what I create to work and see who I can kill with a painful recap of my journey. I came back with over 4 gigs of data (movie and picture files). Yikes! Maybe I should just make a scrapbook ha? I did want to share one of my most favorite pictures of close to 300 that I snapped. I took the four photos in this composite when I went to the Sorcerer’s Workshop in Hollywood Land/California Adventure (thanks Bobby— you were right- I loved the workshop). There you could sing a song and Ursula the evil sea queen from the Little Mermaid will “steal your voice,” you could see the magic mirror from Snow White, and you could participate in a virtual storybook. The book asked questions about my personality (kinda reminded me of some personality tests I’ve seen recently)—and well this is what I got! Nice…. I knew all along that I was “most like The Evil Queen from Snow White.” Not a surprise! Now if only this data would do as I say (since I am queen after all)- I would rule the digital realm forever!!! MuahahaaaAhhaaaaaAaaa…

Virtually Pop Your Top

A virtual collection of electronic records which can be sorted using your fingers and a touch screen the size of a movie screen. The data can also be manipulated in various ways to improve collection control. This image was taken at the 2012 E-Records Forum in Austin, Texas. An Open House at the Texas Advanced Computing Center’s Visualization Lab was apparently a “highlight” of the forum.

As promised, it is time to mention the most interesting person I had the chance to talk with at the NAGARA/CoSA Conference in Santa Fe last week. I guess when you ask the right questions “they” will come! By they I mean the smart people… After one of the sessions, Mark Conrad an Archives Specialist working with the Applied Research Division (Office of Information Services) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) approached me. He said “aren’t you the one asking about open source solutions?” But of course I was the one! I was so excited to here that NARA is going there!!! I also had the chance to attend a session titled ISO 16363 Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories. The session was delivered by Mark and Technology Specialists from Kentucky. This “Archives Specialist” slash technical guru immediately started rattling off a list of tools and projects that I should take a closer look at. Using his tricked out iPad he started prompting his screen to pop my top. Mark works in the Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST). In his position with NARA, he works with computer scientists and engineers from all over the world “to leverage new theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques to advance the lifecycle of electronic records.” Part of the mission of his division includes looking into “emerging technologies.” I must say I about did a back flip when Mark pulled up images of a Visualization Lab in the works. Simply mind blowing! There it was— a virtual filing cabinet. As an archivist, I would be able to process or arrange and describe electronic records by using my fingers and a touch screen. Yes- a touch screen- a virtual system used to arrange collections and sort data- with color codes and all. The volume of records in a particular series is proportional to the amount of data within a particular sector of the collection. In January of 2011, the web administrator of NARAtions: The Blog of the United States National Archives interviewed Mark Conrad. She asked him what he was working on and he said “with the assistance of 17 student interns, I am collaborating on a number of projects. For example, many of the students are currently loading large numbers of files into a testbed that is being used by the computer scientists working on the CI-BER project. The purpose of the project is to provide insights into the management of very large data collections. As the number of files and bytes in a collection goes up some of the systems used to manage the collection break down. This project will help us to identify some of the bottlenecks and look for better ways to build systems that don’t break down as the volume picks up.” He also said he was working with the “Department of Energy, NIST, Naval Sea Systems Command, Army Research Lab, and other Federal Agencies on ways to share information about current and emerging practices for managing and preserving engineering data for as long as it is needed.” Sometimes I am glad that I ask a grippa questions— if I didn’t care about open source solutions, I would have never met one of the most interesting archivists with a technical background ever.

Knowledge Eater

**************************************************************

The NAGARA/CoSA Conference is over. It was a great conference. I met some wonderful people, visited with some old friends, and brushed up on digital initiatives/standards. As always, I am saving the best for last. Sometime this week I will post about the most interesting person I met. I spent some time talking with him about digital initiatives at the National Archives which will blow your mind! For tonight, here is an “in a nutshell” look at where my hours and thoughts were over the last few days.

• The President’s Directive on Managing Government Records with Meg Phillips, Electronic Records Manager, National Archives and Records Administration
• Hiring Electronic Records Archivists- What Expertise is Required with Professors and Archivists from Kansas and North Carolina
• Electronic Records Roundtable
• ISO 16363 Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories with Mark Conrad, Archives Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration and Archivists and Technology Specialists from Kentucky
• Use of Public Records Laws to Bypass Discovery Rules with Records Managers from Ohio and Nevada and two Attorneys from New Mexico
• Electronic Records Archives (ERA): Accomplishments and Lessons Learned with Meg Phillips, Electronic Records Manager, National Archives and Records Administration
• 1940 Census: The Next Generation with Training Officers and Archivists from National Archives and Records Administration
• Who Controls Where the Governors’ Papers Go with Archivists from Texas, Nevada and South Dakota
• Redaction, Expungement and Sealing of Electronic Records with Attorneys, Administrators, and Records Managers from New Mexico, Tennessee, and Arizona

• ……………..NARA holds Congressional Records as a courtesy, but they do not have legal custody. I didn’t know that!
  
• ……………..At this time, ERA holds about 18TB of electronic Congressional Records that are not accessible to the public through NARA.
• ……………..At this time, ERA holds 246+TB of 2010 Census data, 34TB of Federal Records, and 80TB of Presidential Records.
• ……………..There were 550 Hard Drives from the George W. Bush Administration.
• ……………..George W. Bush changed the law to have his records sent to College Station instead of the State Archives.
• ……………..Georgia Tech developed sophisticated software to mull through data on hard drives allowing a 10% drop down to what actually needs to be addressed as a record.
• ……………..NARA is using open source solutions to manage digital information. Nice… Wooohooo!
  
• ……………..The Open Archives Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (Magenta Book- June 2012) is available at http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0m2.pdf.
• ……………..Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification Checklist (TRAC) is available at http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/trac_0.pdf.
• ……………..ISO 16363 self assessment template is available at www.iso16363.org.
• ……………..ISO 16363 is still the standard and defines a recommended practice for assessing the trustworthiness of digital repositories.
• ……………..Web ARChive file format (WARC) is still being used for web harvesting and digital preservation (ISO Standard).
• ……………..DuraCloud (with a combination of DSpace and Fedora) an open source platform and managed service that provides on-demand storage and services for digital content in the cloud.
• ……………..ACE (Auditing Control Environment) is being used for digital preservation.
• ……………..Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe System (LOCKSS) is still being used. The system is open source and allows development and support for the preservation of and access to web based collections.
• ……………..Archivematica (open source) is a digital preservation system designed to maintain standards-based, long-term access to digital content.
• ……………..Commercial products being used included Tessella SDB, Preservica, and OCLC Digital Archive.
• ……………..Some states are restricting access to blue prints and building plans for security reasons.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Screen shots of the Wayback Machine statistics for
My Voyage Through Time and The Drawings of Leonardo.

Did you really think that web site was gone?? One of my all time favorite tools in my digital arsenal includes the Wayback Machine. If you have never heard of it, be prepared to blow your mind. Most of you know that I like things that creep and crawl, but this web crawler absolutely rocks. The Wayback Machine is basically a digital time portal. The portal is a repository for snapshots of the living internet. With the machine, you can “browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available.” At some point this site is sure to be full text searchable, but unfortunately it is not there yet. In the mid 90s, Bruce Gilliat and Brewster Kahle (of Internet Archive- a California based non-profit organization) created a web crawler capable of capturing publicly accessible digital information. Someone had to do it! Gilliat, Kahle, and their team collaborated with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress on this mind bending project. Because of obvious changes in browsers and such, the pages don’t always look perfect, but the data is there. I searched for my web site just out of curiosity. What?? I got a big red exclamation point with a corresponding note reading “The Wayback Machine hasn’t archived a capture for that URL. Here’s a capture taken 0 minutes ago from the live web that will become part of the permanent archive in a few months.” Well at least my data will be archived now! If my web site gets taken out by a hacker “boooyeahhh!” Haha… It’s kinda like a site backup people… I ran another check of one of my favorite sites The Drawings of Leonardo, and found that the site has been archived 194 times since 2001. There is a timeline and you can click away to see what the site looked like at any of those 194 points in time. Of course since these captures are live snapshots of the internet, they are indeed records. The records have been used as legal evidence in court cases. There have also been many challenges for this team of technologically savvy archive geniuses. Some people don’t like for data and history to live on, but I am an archivist, so I gotta luv it! Check out the Wayback Machine if you haven’t. It is sure to pop your top!