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Thanks to new technology, UC faculty, researchers and librarians will now be able to better track valuable Web site content in an increasingly digitalized world.

The is the result of a 4 1/2-year grant awarded by the Library of Congress National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program. The program’s mission is to develop a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available digital content. The California Digital Library provides digital library development and support for UC libraries.

The Web archives will be available to the general public, according to a statement from the UC Office of the President.

“This is a tool that can track censorship in China, political regimes in Iran and social commentary around the world,” said Laine Farley, executive director of the California Digital Library. “CDL and the UC libraries are leading the way in building collections for the 21st century.“

Examples already include Web site content on:

• 2003 California recall election
• 2007 Southern California wildfires
• AFL-CIO
• African politics
• Alternative mass media
• Anarchism
• California state government
• Guantanamo Bay detention camp
• Labor unions and organizations

Researchers are concerned about the "vast amounts of information" on the Web that is at risk of disappearing or has already disappeared, UCOP maintains. As a result, without Web archiving tools, libraries are challenged to continue their historic role as cultural memory institutions in the digital environment.

Kris Kasianovitz, government information specialist at the UCLA libraries and the curator of the Los Angeles Local Government Web Archives, said, “These researchers are looking to the library as the keeper of the cultural record of our times to capture and curate the Web-based material they deem vital for their current and future research.”

Partners in this project include the University of North Texas, New York University and Stanford University.