The Internet Archive's new subscription service, Archive-it, allows any user to create, manage and search their own web archive through a web interface without any technical expertise required. Archive-it can be used to archive an institution's own web site, or build collections of up to one hundred web sites. Through a web based interface users can create web collections, catalogue the websites associated with a collection, archive websites in the collection, monitor the archiving process, search and browse the collection when complete, and administer access to these collections. In addition, the service will support collaborative collections, where curators at separate organizations can create and share collections. The Internet Archive hosts the service, and stores the data, but can provide a copy for the institution's local use. The web archives can also be added to the Internet Archive's overall collection for long term access and preservation if a subscriber decides to discontinue use of the service. The primary tools used for harvesting and access are open source and the storage file format is non proprietary....The service was designed for institutions who have been mandated to preserve content on the public web and do not have the technical infrastructure or manpower to start immediately. Typical institutions are state archive, state libraries, university libraries, public service and other government service institutions.
While the service is fee-based for the archiving institution, all or most of the content is OA for users. Subscribers can choose to make their collections private, if they wish. If they do, their collections will not be OA for reading but will still be OA for searching.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/16/2005 08:46:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
