A number of faithful blog followers have raised with me the possibility that the whole blog (ten years' worth of posts and jolly discussions, almost 1.5 million hits and almost 2,500 posts) would probably disappear without trace if I was to die tomorrow or to be done over by some shady archaeologists dressed in long raincoats, trilby hats and dark glasses.........
Anyway, I was advised by a colleague that web sites and blogs deemed to have high value as representing aspects of the life of the nation could be placed onto the national "web archive" and after going through some sort of screening process I have now been invited to issue a license to the National Library of Wales for the blog to be copied and archived. That means that its content will be available till the end of time -- not necessarily on the open access web, but via the copyright libraries: the British Library; the National Library of Scotland; the National Library of Wales; Bodleian Libraries, Oxford; University Library, Cambridge; and the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
The license has been processed, and so the blog in its entirety will be available via the libraries just as soon as the copying is done. After that it will be updated at six-monthly intervals.
Further information can be obtained from the UK web archive site, here: www.webarchive.org.uk
So there we are. We can all sleep easily in our beds from now on, in the knowledge that all of the rude things I have said about archaeologists are available for everlasting scrutiny and approval.
7 comments:
been done already
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/
Thanks Pete. That was quick!
Speaking as a former Chartered Librarian who trained under the shadow of the National Library of Wales up on the hill above Aberystwyth [which I can still just about spell correctly] I have to say I am chuffed for Brian, his blogsite, and the small team of regular bloggers who have contributed so analytically and objectively about all those well - known Stonehenge and Preseli archaeologists and their specialist compatriots who have regularly tried to cover and hide both those locations under the mist of their own wishful thinking and worse.
It is good to know it is us, rather than the aforesaid dream - catchers, who will be preserved in perpetuity in the hallowed walls of the copyright libraries of the U.K. Future generations will no doubt produce loads of PhD's in their researching our collective wisdom.
Thanks Tony! But don't hold your breath -- I suspect that most of the nonsense trotted out by academics of all sorts will end up on the web archive too -- I would not be surprised if all info coming out of university departments is deemed to be worth saving in perpetuity, with no effective screening out of the stuff that should be binned.
Ah, but we must all rest assured that Truth will, in the long run, be discerned to emanate primarily from the Stonehenge and the Ice Age Blogsite.
We are dealing with matters of authenticity versus hubris.
Excellent step!
Authenticity and integrity.
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