Credit(s): 2 

Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to graduate-level students.  

Course description

Current topics affecting the information sciences. Offered every term.

INF 7785: Website Preservation

Credits: 2

Prerequisite(s): INF6080 or INF7780 or INF6050 or instructor approval

Rationale for inclusion in curriculum

The internet has become our main mode of communication.

The need to preserve websites is a challenge culturally and technologically. This is a growing field  with a limited amount of professionals having developed these unique skills. This course addresses the challenges in needs assessment, as well as technological limitations. Students will spend significant time with these complex tools and understand how to create successful workflows.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be able to:

1. Research the options for how to preserve websites
2. Evaluate current tools and their advantages and disadvantages
3. Categorize differences in preservation needs for various components of a website
4. Develop successful capture workflow for an organization
5. Strategize all the components for an optimal website preservation plan
6. Resolve ingest problems
7. Compare and contrast storage options
8. Apply standard archival practices to website preservation including appraisal, description, quality assurance, and organization

Content

1. In-depth case studies of various current website preservation projects
2. Overview of website preservation process
3. Review of professional literature regarding the challenges of website preservation
4. Exposure to turnkey tools, paid services, and open-source patchwork options
5. Expert guest lecturers including website preservation professionals

Course methodology

Some or all of the following: Lectures, readings, class discussions, paper and proposal writing, oral presentations and guest speaker(s)

Bases for evaluation of student performance

1. Research paper
2. Examination
3. Oral presentation/case studies
4. Participation/discussion

Text

We will rely on articles for now.

Approved: 07/22

Updated: 03/24