Ranty Mums, Personalised cards, Obscure Bus Stops and Political Activists: Libraries choose their Top 100 picks of the UK internet Archives!

A harsh sign spotted in http://shitlondon.co.uk/page/112/

If you've not heard, they are 'archiving the internet' as from April 6th, as the British Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and Trinity College Dublin, are now enabled to archive the entire UK web, along with e-journals, e-books and other formats. 

Beforehand the plan was British Library’s own, to voluntarily capture the web as produced by/from the UK, which involved requesting permission from site owners. This was alongside their legal obligation to catalogue almost all the printed work produced in the UK. Now that they’re legally obliged to capture the electronic work as well, they’re enabled to use an automated web crawler to find .uk endings.

There should be a lot of old, abandoned and weird stuff caught up in that, so already talk abounds of what is WORTH archiving for the future, what will be a good snapshot of our country’s interests and all? So “…curators and other experts from all the participating libraries chose the 100 Websites which they judge will be essential reading for future generations researching our life and times in 2013.”

It is well worth a reccy! For an interesting sweep across our culture, some of which is a bit eclectic. Highlights for me on the list are Shit London , The British Cartoon Archive, Old Maps Online, and McGonagall Online 

Full list is here: http://www.bl.uk/100websites/top100.html

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