Disappearing web pages: responsibilities

Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006From: Don Osborn dzo@bisharat.net

When I was in Niger and in China I made a great deal ofuse of the internet for research for articles for reference (writing, courses). This is a little risky because things get moved and sites disappear. But usually one can track down online material, or at worstlook it up on the Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org

Recently, however, I ran into difficulties on the UNIFEM site, a public information site, and a scholar's personal site. None of the material I referenced from any of these three was to be found anywhere despite all sorts of search angles, nor was it available in Wayback. Wayback is a great resource (learned about it on H-West-Africa a few years ago), but it doesn't archive everything and it's hard to imagine how it will keep up with webpage production. Nor does it archive certain file types - no PDFs, for example.

I'm not sure how widespread a problem this is, but I'm surprised that organizations presenting substantive information online would not take steps to assure that that continues to be available in one form or another. Even an individual scholar would also, I think, want to assure that what they have gone to the trouble to post online retains its value by remaining somewhere other scholars can continue to access it.

It occurs that in the case of organizations, various site reorganizations often lead to things being discarded because they are considered out of date, or because the folks doing the reorganizing have entirely different agendae (and don't appreciate how info in a location may become a resource to some number of users). This may have been the case with the UNIFEM site, which went to its own URL from a subdomain ofUNDP. As I searched in vain for the article I had used online, I found four other webpages (2 HTML & 2 PDF) whose creators had also thought enough of it to post a reference and link - all of which are now as useless as my reference.

As for scholars with personal sites who move on or publish what they had weblished, they may not appreciate that material they have posted online may betaken seriously and referenced for other work. There are many ways to manage content as situations change. In the case of online drafts that are superseded by published articles one cannot or prefers not to retain online, deleting and forgetting about it is not ideal (at least replace removed content with an explanation and forwarding reference).

So as not to leave this as a mere complaint, shouldn't there be some standard of conduct, as it were, for weblishing and maintaining content - such that at least there is a forwarding note and message on the fate of material that is removed from a website (as simple as a page with the removed pages' titles and defunct URLs ( so search engines find them)? I've seen diverse guidelines for authors of web content, but don't recall any clear and compelling statement of standards or responsibilities (yes maybe that is the word) formaintaining knowledge content online.
From: H-NET List for African History and Culture [mail to:H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU] On Behalf Of Patrick Wurster Sent: 04 September 2006 14:17 To: H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: Academic & Research Content Online: Responsibilities to Maintain?: query

Thanks Sally. CW