Instruction session, May 12, 2004
Lewis and Clark College
Instructor: Kate Rubick, Reference Librarian Candidate, kate@rubick.com
Cached Links in Google
http://www.google.com
Google takes a snapshot of each page it visits as it crawls the web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable. These backups will only be available as long as the site itself continues to exist in Google's index. If a site has been taken down permanently, you may still be able to access the backup until Google crawls the Web again (every 6-8 weeks) and deletes it from the cache.Hint 1: This feature can be very convenient "if the original page is temporarily unavailable because of: Internet congestion, a down, overloaded, or just slow website."
Hint 2: This feature may also be useful "if the owner has recently removed the page from the Web."
Caveat 1: When you are looking at a cached version of a site, you are looking at information that may be inaccurate, incomplete and/or out-of-date.
Caveat 2: Google's cached feature is causing some copyright controversy because it can provide searchers access to copyright restricted materials.
The description of Google derived from:
http://www.googleguide.com/cached_pages.html
Other articles about the copyright issues associated with Google Cache:
"The Curse of the Cache: Is Google's Memory Too Good?" PC World 21.6 (Jun. 2003): 126.
Olsen, Stephanie. "Google cache raises copyright concerns" CNET News.com 9 Jul. 2003.
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-1024234.html
Quint, Barbara . "The Horse's Mouth. " Information Today 21.3 (Mar. 2004): 7.
Time Traveling with the Way Back Machine
http://www.archive.org
Created in 1996, The Internet Archive is a "comprehensive library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form." The Wayback Machine, introduced in 2001, gives the public a means of searching this collection, over ten billion publicly available web pages, for free.Use the Internet Archive to get historical snapshots of how a page has looked, like before and after significant events. Use it as a tool to study how culture, or even government policy, changes over time.
Hint 1: The Way Back Machine is a direct-access search engine, so you have to have the URL of the site you want to see. Keyword and subject searching are available in beta testing mode through Recall at: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
Hint 2: Other resources available through the Internet Archive include access to electronic texts (through projects like Project Gutenberg or Children's Library), moving images and audio files. They have also created a special September 11 Web Archive, which you can access at: http://september11.archive.org/
Caveat 1: You may have trouble accessing parts of sites in the Internet Archive. Some images won't load, for example, and some links won't work. In addition, some sites have been blocked for copyright reasons or because the owner of the site requested it.
Caveat 2: Keep in mind, dates available for a site reflect the days that archive.org visited the site, not all the dates the site existed. And there can be a 6-12 month lag before sites appear on Internet Archive.
The description of the Internet Archive was created using their press information at:
http://www.archive.org/about/press_release.php
A really great article about the Internet Archive:
O'Leary, Mick. "Internet Archive Joins History's Great Libraries." Information Today 20.10 (Nov. 2003): 41-42.
The Web of Yesterday-tracking changes made to government sites
For information about changes and deletions made to government web sites, check out: OMB Watch
http://www.ombwatch.org
"OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability and citizen participation in public policy decisions. Located in Washington, D.C., OMB Watch was founded in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)."This and additional information available from: