Over the last month, the White House has ordered thousands of government web pages to be taken down. For digital archivists, the move has renewed interest in preserving information online. 

University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Rebecca Frank, and expert on archives and digital curation, says these web pages are “valuable” and the government has a responsibility to “take care of them.” 

“Whenever there’s a change in office – regardless of which parties or administrations are outgoing and incoming – it’s really important that we preserve government websites and information as a record,” Frank says. “And while there’s perhaps a greater sense of urgency at the moment, the work that’s happening is not brand new.”

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Read “The ‘Wayback Machine’ is preserving the websites Trump’s White House took down’” at CNN. 

Learn more about UMSI assistant professor Rebecca Frank by visiting her UMSI faculty profile.