Historic Value of University Web Content

Increasingly, many vital university records are both created and disseminated in a digital environment and are only made available via the Web. These records not only detail major University of Texas at Austin activities such as the creation of new departments, construction of new buildings, major campus initiatives, changes to university policy or changes to the curriculum but also provide valuable historical context for what the university was like at a given place in time. Thus, harvesting this content holds importance to future researchers, archivists and the public alike and allows the university to meet record retention requirements. Web content is inherently difficult to preserve due to its often changing or dynamic nature, thus, it is progressively more important to implement real-time capture of these pages.

The migration of many university department and college sites to CMS 2.0 signifies an important turning point in the web history of the University of Texas and presents an opportunity for complementary services on campus to take an active role in preserving that history.

In the list of example records that meet University Archives selection criteria, (see below), it is evident that websites may contain some combination of many of the record types listed. Web pages are composite objects.

• Reports, especially annual and biennial reports.
• Planning documents, including proposals for new programs and facilities.
• Curriculum development materials, accreditation reports, course syllabi and reading lists, and course schedules.
• Policy and procedure documents.
• Budgets
• Publications, including newsletters, bulletins, programs, and promotional material (including web records)
• Correspondence and memoranda (incoming and outgoing), including email, concerning policies, procedures, and operations of the unit.
• Organizational charts and job descriptions.
• Records of grant and research projects (final reports, publications).
• Committee records, including minutes, reports, correspondence, and publications.
• Audio-visual materials, especially identified photographs and moving images.
• Statistical documentation of departmental activities
• Official histories
• Briefing papers and studies