The Value of a Web Archive

Born-Digital ABC News Content

Removed News Content

3 Functions of an Archive

Function 1

"The whole of the documents made or received in the course of purposeful activity, and of the relationships among those documents.” 

Function 2

"The circumstances of creation endow archives with certain innate characteristics, which must be maintained intact for the archives to preserve their probatory capacity."

Function 3

"It is the primary function of the archivist to maintain unbroken, continuing custody of societal archives, and to protect their integrity by keeping them physically and intellectually uncorrupted"

What is a record in a web context?

Clearly a record

Probably a Record

Possibly a record??

Technical Limitations

Robots.txt Exclusions

JavaScript

Dynamic Sites

The Knotted Line

Approaching a Solution

 Selection of material for web archives has to be informed by technical constraints, but not shaped by them.

Surrogates &
Annotation