A presentation on archiving the Smithsonian's hundreds of websites, blogs, apps, and social media accounts.
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The Web of Sites: Creating Effective Web Archiving Appraisal and Collection Development Policies
1. The Web of Sites: Creating Effective
Web Archiving Appraisal and
Collection Development Policies
Jennifer Wright
Archives and Information Management Team Leader
SAA 2013
Session 408
2. The Mission of Smithsonian Archives
Appraise, acquire, and preserve
the records of the Smithsonian
Institution
Offer a range of research and
reference services
Establish policy and provide
expert guidance on record
keeping practices
Create and promote products
and services that broaden
understanding of the
Smithsonian
3. Websites as Records
Smithsonians official definition of a record:
any official recorded information, regardless of
medium or characteristics, created, received,
and maintained by a Smithsonian museum,
office, or employee
4. Smithsonian Directive 950
Management of the Smithsonian Web
Sets policies and procedures to ensure the integrity
of content, reliability of infrastructure, and usability
of websites while protecting privacy of visitors and
Smithsonians reputation
Requires Archives to provide dispositions for unit
websites, web applications, and online exhibits
Requires Archives to maintain historical snapshots
of Smithsonian websites and related content
5. Smithsonian Directive 814
Social Media Policy
Sets policy for opening and maintaining official
Smithsonian social media accounts
Requires that units notify Archives when opening
and before closing a social media account
Requires Archives to maintain registry of social
media accounts and to archive information
contained in the accounts according to current
standards and retention policies
6. Why Save?
Websites and social media profiles are Smithsonians
public face
Similar to a publication
May incorporate many types of materials
May replace other formats
8. Smithsonians Web Presence
257 websites + 10 mobile websites
89 blogs
26 apps for various platforms
578 social media accounts including:
153 Facebook accounts
105 Twitter accounts
66 Flickr accounts
66 YouTube accounts
http://www.si.edu/Connect
9. Why Not Save Everything?
Some content already transferred to Archives in
another format
Some content is the responsibility of other units
Some content is collections, not records
Some content serves only as pointers to other
Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian content
10. Other Issues Affecting Appraisal
Certain types of files and coding dont crawl well
Flash, JavaScript, some video
Organization and coding of site may make it impossible to
capture everything wanted and exclude everything unwanted
Social media terms of service often do not allow
crawling
Users may consider social media interactions to be
private
12. Our Policies: Public Websites
Permanent records but may exclude:
Detailed collections information
Large sections duplicated in another format
Crawl annually, before and after redesign, and on
day of major event
13. Our Policies: Intranets
Individually appraised based upon content
Generally block crawlers permanent records must
be transferred via ftp, server to server transfer, or
external drive
Will be restricted as appropriate
14. Our Policies: Social Media Accounts
Will capture most accounts one time to show they
existed and how they were used
Will crawl, use export tool, take screenshots, or a
combo to best capture account
Will not be made immediately available online to
mitigate violations of terms of service
15. Our Policies: Social Media Accounts
Must include or link to Smithsonians Terms of Use
no capture otherwise
http://www.si.edu/Termsofuse
16. Our Policies: Social Media Accounts
After first capture, account will be appraised
annually - significant original content will be
captured again
17. Our Policies: Blogs
Permanent records
Crawl annually unless there is no link to
Smithsonians terms of use
18. Questions?
Jennifer Wright
Archives and Information
Management Team Leader
wrightjm@si.edu
http://www.siarchives.si.edu/
SAA 2013 Session 408
Original Smithsonian Home
Page, launched May 8, 1995
Editor's Notes
#4: By this definition, any official web presence maintained by Smithsonian units is considered a record and subject to appraisal by the Archives.
#5: The Smithsonian also has two directives governing its web presence that give the Archives specific responsibilities.
#8: An organizations web presence may be larger than you realize.
#9: Not to mention iTunes,Pinterest, UStream, FourSquare, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, Wikis, Vine, Vimeo, and many others.Thats a lot of data to be captured, preserved, and stored over the long haul. We need to make sure were not capturing more than is necessary.
#11: There are also technical and legal issues affecting appraisal.
#12: Weve found that one policy doesnt fit every situation and weve developed general polices for different types of web presences.
#13: Annually is our goal, but were still working up to that frequency.
#17: On the left is my favorite example of original content. On April 30, 2012, the National Zoo live-tweeted from the artificial insemination of our giant panda.On the right is an excerpt from the Smithsonian Magazines Twitter feed. It simply tweets teasers and links to its blog posts and other web content. The account has immediate marketing value, but not long-term significance.