Draft:September 11 Digital Archive
The September 11 Digital Archive is ...
History
The September 11 Digital Archive launched in January 2002,[1] which is a few months after the September 11 attacks of 2001. It is made at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media in partnership with the American Social History Project of the City University of New York.[2][3][4] The project started with a $700,000 grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation[2][5] and aims to "create a permanent record of the events of September 11, 2001".[6] In October 2003 the September 11 Digital Archive collection was acquired by the Library of Congress.[7]
From 2003 to 2011 the project did not have "adequate funding", which caused the project to have concerns about lack of sustainability, the need to redesign the website, update metadata, etc. They also had worries about not being able to defend against a potential anniversary cyberattack.[4] In 2010 it was reported that the website design had not been changed since 2004, and that although the project would still accept new submissions, they would not appear on the website.[8] A lot of these problems were solved after a Save America's Treasures grant.[4]
The archive inspired the Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive, a digital archive for New Zealand's Canterbury earthquakes of 2010–2011.[9]
Collection
Need to finish organising
Contains photos, emails, videos, animations...[1] Also stories, audio, videos, documents...[10] instant messages, slideshow presentations, cartoons...[2] web blog entires, Flash animations...[4] Stories from survivors, witnesses and people who wanted to contribute through website submissions.[6] Documents include ones from the New York City Fire Department, National Guard and more.[6] Also collected from Smithsonian Institution, Red Cross and others.[6] Also have post cards, flyers, etc from New York streets.[6] Also includes images of the World Trade Center and the New York skyline before the attacks.[2] Interviews with ancestry from the middle-east who were impacted by backlash following the event, such as by harassment...[6]
In September 2003 used a total storage of 50 gigabytes.[2]
Originally aimed for 1,000 'stories'. By September 2002, it had 90,000.[1] As at 2021 there are over 150,000 digital files in the collection, including 40,000 first-hand accounts and 15,000 images.[3]
Also went through Arabic websites and worked with the Museum of Chinese in America to record and translate interviews of Chinatown residents.[4]
Contributors (merge into collection perhaps?)
Need to finish organising
Encouraged many people to contribute. Contributors did not have to be at the scene in New York or the Pentagon or Pennsylvania. Foreigners were also encouraged to contribute.[10]
This paper says that even incorrect submissions are helpful "A misleading individual account, for example, could reveal certain personal and emotional aspects of the event that would otherwise be lost in a strict authentication and appraisal process." However, it can make it difficult for historians looking through the archive to determine what is real and what is not.[10]
Website language was created in both English and Spanish to encourage more international contributions.[4]
References
- ^ a b c "A digital snapshot of 9/11 takes shape on the Internet ; Online archive holds 150,000 e-mails, photos, much more". USA Today. September 5, 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Digital Project on Sept. 11, 2001, Gets National Repository". The Washington Post. September 4, 2003. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b Magazine, Smithsonian; McGreevy, Nora. "These Free Online Resources Tell the Story of 9/11 and Its Aftermath". Smithsonian. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "Sustaining the 9/11 Digital Archive". PCMAG. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ "Sloan Foundation Supports September 11 Digital Archive Project". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "9 Long Years Have Passed Since Sept. 11: Web Site Keeps A Permanent Digital Archive Of The Attacks". The Daily Review. September 11, 2010.
- ^ "Symposium Marks the Acquisition of 9/11 Archives". Library of Congress. October 2003. Archived from the original on April 3, 2005. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ "9 Long Years Have Passed Since Sept. 11: Web Site Keeps A Permanent Digital Archive Of The Attacks". The Daily Review. September 11, 2010.
- ^ Cairns, Lois (October 23, 2011). "Canterbury quake to be with us forever". The Press. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c Haskins, Ekaterina (October 2007). "Between Archive and Participation: Public Memory in a Digital Age". Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 37 (4): 401–422. doi:10.1080/02773940601086794. ISSN 0277-3945.