What is it?

The TDL Web Archiving Texas Interest Group (WATXIG) is seeking to work together with the wider Texas community to create an archive of web content documenting the events Texans are holding around America's 250th birthday. 

We are seeking the input of web archivists, curators, librarians, and the general community in identifying websites and web pages that should be added to this collection. Nominated web content will be captured and made public in The Portal to Texas History, thereby preserving and making accessible this piece of Texas and American history.

How does it work and how can you help?

Website URLs can be nominated for inclusion in the collection through this site:

To add a URL to the collection, click the yellow “Add a URL” button in the top right corner of the site. 

In the form, copy and paste the URL to be captured (also referred to as a "seed") into the "Website URL" field. This is the only required field on the form.

You can optionally specify a scope for the crawling of the URL you are nominating. This means indicating how deeply you want to crawl the seed URL. Options are:

• Host - crawl everything on the domain 

  • Example: Nominating https://www.texasamerica250.com and selecting the scope "Host" will crawl the full Texas America250 website

• Path - crawl the seed and any URLs linked to the seed that share the seed's URL path 

  • Example: Nominating https://www.tsl.texas.gov/america250 and selecting scope "Path" will include linked pages with /america250 in their URL, such as  https://www.tsl.texas.gov/america250/exhibit, but not pages without /america250, such as https://www.tsl.texas.gov/arc  

• URL - crawl only the single page represented by the URL nominated 

  • Example: Nominating https://www.cityofdenton.com/954/Independence-Day-Celebration and selecting the scope "URL" archives only https://www.cityofdenton.com/954/Independence-Day-Celebration and nothing else.

If you are unsure what the scope for the URL should be, feel free to skip this field.

If desired, you can also add your name, institution, and email address to the form. This is not required, but it allows filtering the list of nominated URLs to just the ones you have added or those added by anyone from your institution.

Once you have filled out all required and desired fields, click "Submit" at the bottom.

The URL nomination tool is active now through July 5 for people to select items for the collection. At the end of the URL nomination period, nominated URLs will be captured and added to a web archive that will be made available in The Portal to Texas History and will be available for download.

How to find URLs for the collection

All you need to find and identify content for this collection is your web browser and search engine of choice.

Searching the web with search terms such as “Texas America 250” or “Texas America semiquincentennial” will find many relevant websites. But adding terms to this can sometimes find more niche or region specific web content.

Consider searching for content using additional search terms indicating an area or region of Texas (example: Lubbock, West Texas, Harris County). You can also think of the types of web content people might have made related to America 250 events in Texas, such as exhibits, news stories, or concerts, and add those search terms to your query as well. Additionally, you can search for content related to any other area of interest you might have, such as art or music or resistance movements, and add those terms to your query.

The goal for this project is essentially to identify and preserve web content that represents this moment in history for America and Texas.

July 1 Working Session Event

The WATXIG will be hosting a working session for people to attend to find and nominate URLs for this project. All are welcome to attend this event. No web archiving experience is necessary. Instructions for finding and nominating URLs will be given during the event. If you have any questions about the project or process, this is a great place to get them answered!

The working session will be held July 1 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. You can find more information about this event as well as the Zoom meeting link here: https://www.tdl.org/event/watxig-texas-america-250/

For questions:

You can contact Lauren Ko (lauren.ko@unt.edu), Head of Software Development at the University of North Texas and co-chair of the WATXIG, if you have any questions.