Welcome to the September 11 Web Archive
Our aim in creating this collection of Web materials was
to preserve the Web expressions of individual people, groups,
the press and institutions from around the world, in the aftermath
of the attacks in the U.S. on September 11, 2001. We hope
the archive provides resources for many kinds of reflection
on the meanings of these events.
Starting in the hours just after the attacks, until December
1, 2001, we collected Web materials that reflect responses
to them, from as many sources as possible. People from around
the world contributed URLs to be included in this collection,
and we are grateful for each submission.
We have catalogued approximately 2,500 sites related to the September 11 attacks.
This catalogued collection is now available through the Minerva Project of the Library of Congress. We continue to explore new ways of making sense of these archived
materials. We welcome your feedback about how you use the
archive, and suggestions for improving access to the archived
materials. Please send email to us at september11@loc.gov.
Developing The September 11 Web Archive
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September
11, 2001, producers of Web sites around the world employed
information production and hyperlinking capabilities in attempts
to provide information, features, news, services, reactions,
as well as virtual memorials, for various audiences around
the world. Between September 11 and December 1, 2001, scholars
affiliated with WebArchivist.org worked with staff at the
Library of Congress, the Internet Archive, and volunteers
from around the world to identify URLs that were likely to
be relevant to the question of how Web site producers were
reacting to the events of September 11. We identified eight
categories of site producers that we expected to be responding
on the Web to the attacks. These included: news organizations;
governmental agencies; charity/relief groups; educational
organizations; religious groups; advocacy groups; commercial
organizations and individual citizens. We conducted systematic
searches for URLs produced by these sets of actors, and followed
links to find other URLs with relevant content. In most cases,
the salient feature of these sites was content referring to
the attacks and/or their aftermath. In some cases, the absence
or removal of such content was salient.
Our initial efforts identified nearly 30,000 different "sites."
Each of the identified sites was archived on a daily basis
until December 1, 2001. The objective of the archiving activity
was to preserve not only the bits and the content, but also
the experiential dimensions of this rapidly emerging Web sphere.
By capturing pages and sites in their hyperlinked context,
the archiving tools preserved not just the collection of Web
pages, but an interlinked Web sphere -- characterized and
bounded by a shared object orientation or reference point,
in this case, the September 11 attacks. The entire archive
consists of 5 TB of Web materials.
WebArchivist.org, in work funded by the Library of Congress
and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, developed the software to search the portion of the collection that is fully catalogued.
This activity included developing methods to link both human
and machine-generated metadata to objects (sites, pages, and
page components) in the archive, adding significant
value for users of the archive, including researchers, journalists
and citizens. In addition, WebArchivist.org researchers have documented the
types of online action made possible on more than 600
archived pages.
Scholars, journalists and citizens are increasingly recognizing
the value of Web sphere archives that allow us to retrospectively
assess the impact and importance of the Web in critical social
and political events. This project represents one of the first
attempts to dynamically capture, on a large scale, a rapidly
emerging Web sphere for future analysis. The nature of the
September 11 terrorist attacks presented several challenges
to established methods of Web archiving. The scale of the
response on the Web to the attacks was unprecedented within
the relatively short history of the Web, and resulted in a
very large Web sphere. In addition, the inability to anticipate
the event precluded any preparations for site identification
and archiving strategies prior to the event itself, and required
the development of a fully dynamic site identification process.
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