About University of Idaho Web Archive Collections

To ensure continued access to the unique born digital content made available on University of Idaho websites, the Library captures university communications in their original web context on an annual basis. Select material from these harvests are made available in our digital collections.

For more information, additional web archive material, or to view web content closer to how it was originally intended please contact Special Collections and Archives. Collections currently include newsletters, such as the Friday Letter, and news items, such as UI News.

The content can be discovered using Google Custom Search, with more options available in individual collection sites.

For current information, please visit University of Idaho website.

U of I Library website 1997
Library website 1997

About Web Archiving

Content on the web is in constant flux: rapidly appearing, updating, and disappearing. However, many of these intentionally time-limited, spontaneous, or ephemeral cultural artifacts may hold enduring value and relevance to the historical record. As the web becomes the primary means of disseminating information, libraries and archives around the world are challenged with preserving this resource for current and future generations. As with all digital information, it is at-risk without active digital preservation (see Why Digital Preservation is Important for Everyone).

For example, the U of I Library Web History Timeline highlights the major redesigns over the last two decades as captured by the Internet Archive. To provide authentic access to archived web content, the Wayback Machine renders the original functionality in the user’s web browser with hyperlinks automatically redirected to archived sources rather than the live web.

The Internet Archive has been leading the field of web archiving since 1996, developing the technical means to harvest, store, preserve, and access archived web content on a huge scale. In 2003 they helped form the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) to support collaborative efforts to improve standards, tools, and best practices for web archiving.

For more information on Web Archiving, visit IIPC and the Internet Archive, or watch the introductory video from the Library of Congress below:

Library of Congress: "Web content changes all the time. If we don't save that content before it disappears, a major part of our cultural history will be lost."

Questions? Comments?
Contact Evan Williamson, digital librarian at ewilliamson@uidaho.edu