NLA launches archive of Australian websites

The National Library of Australia (NLA) has launched an archive of Australian websites dating back to 1996, reports the ABC.

The Australian Web Archive contains snapshots of Australian websites from each year since 1996 and allows users to see the progression of website design over more than two decades.

The archive distinguishes itself from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which was launched in 2001, by being fully text-searchable.

Alison Dellit, head of NLA’s Trove, said the archive began collecting online information in the 1990s to protect Australia’s cultural history and government publications.

‘What you start to see by the late 90s is that a lot of other forms of publications don’t appear anymore,’ said Dellit. ‘If libraries don’t collect that, and don’t make that accessible, then there’s a whole piece of our history in the 90s and the 2000s … where we just really don’t get that picture of Australian history and culture.’

Category: Library news