An investigation by Katie Scott.
A proposal that could give select institutions the power to take snapshots of websites without their owners' permission is being ruminated by our Government. Civil servants at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport are now processing opinions on whether we should be archiving websites for future generations.
[Snip]
It is this act [2003 Legal Deposit Libraries Act] that stipulates that a copy of every printed publication made in this country is sent to The British Library, and, on request, to five other "deposit libraries", which include the National Library of Scotland; the National Library of Wales and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The institutions argue that the act needs to be adapted to include websites, allowing them to archive websites without contacting the owners.
The British Library has, in fact, been archiving websites for six years. Last week, it unveiled the culmination of this work -- an archive of 6,000 websites it deems culturally significant -- called the UK Web Archive. These include the websites of high street shops that fell prey to the recession; and the website for Antony Gormley's Fourth Plinth art installation in Trafalgar Square.
The archive has been available to the public since the end of last year. However, as Stephen Bury, head of European and American collections told Wired: "The new website is more useful as you can search by subject."
But the archivists are being held back by the law, he says. The team currently has to contact the copyright holder of every website it wants to archive and this process has just a 24 percent response rate.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
