MINERVA: Web Archiving & Preservation Project

MINERVA: Web Archiving & Preservation Project
A LOC project to collect and preserve primary source materials that were born digital

Collection Principles
MINERVA's Recommending Officers select Web sites, audio-visual materials, and other primary source materials based on these critieria:

• usefulness in serving the current or future informational needs of Congress and researchers
• unique information provided
• scholarly content
• at risk of loss (due to ephemeral nature of Web sites)
• currency of the information

Other considerations include storage costs, ability to obtain the works from the creators, and technical requirements in capturing the works. More specific guidelines are only available to LOC staff.

Object Characteristics
The born-digital object can be the following:

• an entire Web site
• homepage (or a single page in a site)
  
• individual items on a Web site, such as audio-visual materials, prints, photographs, maps, or related items required to support research in the subject covered.

For each object, the LOC

• retrieves all code, images, documents, and other files essential to reproducing the site
• captures and preserves all technical metadata from the Web server
• stores the content exactly as delivered (Code is always left intact, without making modifications necessary for access)
• maintain platform and file system independence
  

Metadata
The LOC states that traditional means of cataloging are inefficient for Web sites. They catalog in bulk by theme (e.g., Election 2000, September 11th, Election 2002) and create collection level AACR2/MARC catalog records for each theme. The also create title-level metadata for each site using MODS.

Audience
At present there are only four web archives (the "themes" described in Metadata) available. Five are in production. The audience is the general public or anyone doing research about relatively recent events.