Dear all,
Thank you to everyone who replied to my request for information relating to
archive websites - when they were set up and why. (Despite this summing up it
is not too late to reply to that original e-mail...)
Out of the thirteen responses I received, six were from university archives,
four from record offices and three from specialist repositories. There was
quite a spread of years of establishment with it tailing off toward the end,
presumably because most people already have sites by this point. The breakdown
was as follows: 1995 - 1, 1997 - 4, 1999 -3, 2000 - 2, 2001 - 1, 2002 - 1, 2003
- 1.
The majority of repositories (9) set up these websites in order to promote their
services and reach a wider audience, and this was a decision taken by
themselves. In the case of two record offices and one university the decision
was made higher up but they welcomed the opportunity of having a web presence,
and one repository was given a grant in order to set up a website.
What was interesting to note was that while it was often the decision of the
archivists to create a website they have often had to change and update that
site along with corporate policy so that it fits in with the overall
organisation's site in terms of style.
I hope this information is of interest. If anyone has any comments I would be
interested to hear them.
Heather Boyns
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