[Air-l] New book on website archiving

[Niels Brügger]

NEW BOOK ON WEBSITE ARCHIVING


Archiving Websites. General Considerations and Strategies
by Niels Brügger
76 pages

Cover text
"This book treats the micro archiving of websites, i.e. archiving by  
researchers, students or others without special technical knowledge  
who, using a standard computer, wish to save a website for further  
study. The phenomenon is discussed from the standpoint that Internet  
research must be able to stabilise and save the object of its analysis.  
However, the Internet is endowed with certain fundamental  
media-specific dynamics that make stabilisation difficult. Based on an  
account and discussion of these dynamics (linked as they are to sender,  
text and recipient) the following double conclusion is reached.
	Firstly, unlike other well-known media, the Internet does not simply  
exist in a form suited to being archived, but rather is first formed as  
an object of study in the archiving, and it is formed differently  
depending on who does the archiving, when, and for what purpose.  
Secondly, this means that there is an element of subjective creation in  
the archived material, so that methodical deliberations are necessary —  
in other words, the answers to why and how the archived material has  
been created. These conclusions form the starting point for the last  
section of the book, which, based on comprehensive tests of archiving  
software, discusses in depth the elements that can be included in an  
archiving strategy."

The book is free of charge, and as long as in print, copies of the book  
may be obtained by contacting cfi at imv.au.dk. Please specify complete  
address. An electronic version of the book can be obtained on  
http://cfi.imv.au.dk/eng/pub (for the purpose of citation please note  
that the printed and electronic versions are identical).

In connection with the publication of the book a website has been  
established where it is possible to find the conclusions of the test,  
the detailed test results, recommendations for using the individual  
programmes, a detailed description of the test, and links to resources  
on net archiving. The website address is  
http://cfi.imv.au.dk/eng/pub/webarc.

Niels Brügger, PhD, is an associate professor of Media Studies at the  
Institute of Information and Media Studies, University of Aarhus,  
Denmark, and co-founder of the Centre for Internet Research.

________________________________________________________________________ 
_______________

NIELS BRÜGGER, Associate Professor, PhD
Dept. of Information and Media Studies
University of Aarhus
Helsingforsgade 14
8200 Aarhus N
Denmark

Phone (switchboard)     +45 8942 1111
Phone (direct)               +45 8942 9226
Telefax                        + 45 8942 5950
E-mail                               nb at imv.au.dk
Webpage                  www.imv.au.dk/~nb

The Centre for Internet Research     http://cfi.imv.au.dk
Theories of Media and Communication     http://www.medieteori.dk
Internet Archive in Denmark     http://www.netarkivet.dk
Media and Democracy in the Network Society     http://www.modinet.dk