Along with our subscription accounts, the Archive-It team is able to assist a limited number of institutions as “Friends of the Archive” to capture and archive their valuable and at risk web content. Due to the fleeting nature of small web hosts or changes in a parent site, unprotected sites lacking resources often face an uncertain future on the web. The majority of sites that we included in our 2013 Friends of the Archive Collection are not-for-profit, collaboratively designed and updated, have little to no institutional support, and may target a focused niche, depending on the specificity of the content or the community they serve. For these reasons, they are at risk of not being preserved over time. Below are some highlights from the 2013 crop of Friends of the Archive organizations.
The Encyclopedia of Hočąk is one of the largest collections of Hočąk Mythology available on the web. This site contains stories, genealogies, and histories of the Hočąk people, along with information about the Hočąk language and a list of subject headings which link to related stories. Compiling and organizing this information was no small task and, as with many smaller website, its creator was concerned about this site’s longevity. This site is now available on both the Archive-It site as well as the Global Wayback Machine.
The Correspondence of James Barry website was created for the TEXTE (Transfer of Expertise in Technologies of Editing) project out of the National University of Ireland, Galway, and was edited by Tim Mcloughlin. This site provides access to all correspondence to and from Irish painter James Barry. Currently, the physical documents represented in this collection can be found in over 10 different institutions. This site found itself in a similar situation to the Encyclopedia of the Hočąk Mythology. The information was gathered and organized through the tireless efforts of its creators, but the future of the site was not certain. By archiving the site, they are able to retain a copy of the information long into the future for historians, scholars and the general public to be able to access.
The Libya Uprising Archive is a collection of links to news articles, blogs, social media, and videos about events in Libya during the 2011 uprising and its aftereffects that has been compiled by a small group of dedicated volunteers. Because of the time sensitive nature of the links, the collectors were concerned with information loss and link rot. With the exception of a very small number of links, the site and all of its linked information remains intact in its archived version.
The Hospice of the Valley Forum created by the Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix, AZ, is a space where grieving individuals are able to talk openly about their experiences with a professional grief counselor and others in similar circumstances. Discussion of a site redesign and move left counselors with the prospect of losing a considerable portion of their past online discussions. Now councilors are able to point users to archived pages to access older content.
If you are interested in seeing more of our Friends of the Archive collections, please take a look at their collection page at http://archive-it.org/organizations/411
