Page 83 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014doing so, and how these steps relate to the institution’s broader mission. This step in the cycle primarily occurs as institutions initially plan their program; however, institutions do tend to re‐visit and re‐define their web archiving objectives throug‐ hout the life of the program. These periods of re‐ examination may result from a specific stimulus, such as a change of resources, or may be an ongoing question considered along with and in relation to their other collection policies.Memory institutions choose to archive the web for many different reasons, depending on their own ins‐ titutional mandates as well as the objectives of their stakeholders. Some institutions choose to archive the web because they believe that specific web con‐ tent is at risk of disappearing and therefore needs to be captured and kept accessible; particularly in the case of rapidly changing spontaneous events, like natural or manmade disasters, political uprisings, and memorials for public figures. Other institutions have mandates to archive specific publications that are only available in digital formats, such as universi‐ ty course catalogs or state agency reports and publi‐ cations. Additionally, some institutions have legal mandates to archive all official records produced by the institution within their domain, constructing an historical record of their institution’s web presence over time. Still other institutions view web archiving as an extension of their overarching collection deve‐ lopment policy or their digital preservation pro‐ grams, and they may archive web content that en‐ hances or supplements the topics alfeady being emphasized in their traditional collecting activities. Researchers and academics realize the important of creating a thematic/topical web archive on a specific subject or topic that includes different perspectives and social commentary from the increasing influen‐ ce of social media sites, including tweets, blogs, posts and comments. Some institutions have a set of different goals and as a result set up multiple co‐ llections to achieve each objective. Regardless of the specific vision for each web archiving program, this vision shapes many of the policies and decisions ma‐ de in later steps of the web archiving lifecycle.AC/EAs one example, Columbia University Library has been working with Archive‐It since 2008. The library collects web content in several areas. First, the libra‐ ry captures the Columbia University web domain in coordination with University Archives. Second, the library has several other collections built around spe‐ cific themes and topics. These topics include global human rights, historic preservation and city plan‐ ning, and New York City religious institutions. These born‐digital collections complement and supple‐ ment the library’s existing physical collecting activi‐ ties. Columbia describes its overarching goal in web archiving as “believ[ing] that freely available web content [is] an increasingly important source of con‐ tent necessary for current and future research that [is] not yet integrated into academic library collec‐ tion development models.” (personal corresponden‐ ce with Alex Thurman and Tessa Fallon, May,2012).WHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 7: THE WEB ARCHIVING LIFE CYCLE MODEL CURRENT PAGE...THE OUTER CIRCLE ‐ VISION AND OBJECTIVES83