Loss of web material

[michael sam wild]

On BBC4 today the archivist from the British Library was talking about the way web sites go bust or vanish with all they contained and the efforts to conserve content

 

Now we don't write on paper much will future generations be deprived of history or is it just ephemera.

 

I find the ephemera fascinating? I'd love to see Bach.net or Maccann.net etc

[PeterT]

On BBC4 today the archivist from the British Library was talking about the way web sites go bust or vanish with all they contained and the efforts to conserve content

The good news is that, last week, it was announced that this website:

 

http://www.geograph.org.uk/

 

to which I am a contributor, has been archived by the British Library. 1.5+ million images; and their largest undertaking, to date. I am glad that my "efforts" will be maintained, for posterity, and it's this thinking which decided me, some four years ago, to make my music archive available to the I.C.A.

 

Who knows what will be useful, to others, in the future. At least, if it's available, it can be accessed.

[LoiS-sez]

On BBC4 today the archivist from the British Library was talking about the way web sites go bust or vanish with all they contained and the efforts to conserve content

 

Now we don't write on paper much will future generations be deprived of history or is it just ephemera.

 

I find the ephemera fascinating? I'd love to see Bach.net or Maccann.net etc

 

Have you explored the Wayback Machine? Go to http://www.archive.org/web/web.php & read a bit before prowling. It's not perfect, but it saves in more ways than just one. I can use it to find the sites of people who died & no longer are on the web. I also used it once to get back to an earlier version of my own site!

 

ENJOY!!!

[LoiS-sez]

On BBC4 today the archivist from the British Library was talking about the way web sites go bust or vanish with all they contained and the efforts to conserve content

 

Now we don't write on paper much will future generations be deprived of history or is it just ephemera.

 

I find the ephemera fascinating? I'd love to see Bach.net or Maccann.net etc

 

Have you explored the Wayback Machine? Go to http://www.archive.org/web/web.php & read a bit before prowling. It's not perfect, but it saves in more ways than just one. I can use it to find the sites of people who died & no longer are on the web. I also used it once to get back to an earlier version of my own site!

 

ENJOY!!!

 

Consider this a P.S. as I meant also to say what will be lost is correspondence & probably even a lot of photographs. Crashes & upgrades to new computers & constant changes in media are the enemy of the personal items in the past been saved in hard copy, a.k.a. paper. As a storyteller who does a lot of historical work, I really regret the way this is being lost. I've had it happen to my own materials (I know, I know, back up everything & I'm getting better at it). Picture the way a view into the life of composers &, especially, the "ordinary person" will make a difference. Instead of people burning old correspondence or lesser works, the internet & changes in media are doing it for us whether we want it or not.

 

Another worry is the way it's affecting communication & even people's attention spans. Whether it's scanning through an article on the internet or tweeting & texting, everything is getting compressed. Think to how many times you bother to go to the 2d or later pages of something on your computer. Hand-held reading is especially likely to need abbreviation.

 

I'm also a former (but still a bit of subbing) librarian, so I'm sure my print bias shows, but I do know the value of what we're losing.