March 8, 2021

The Drexel University Archives is proud to announce that its collection of archived websites is now available in DragonSearch, the Drexel University Libraries’ online discovery search tool. This project is part of a broader push to improve the Libraries’ digital infrastructure and make the University’s archival collection materials easily accessible and discoverable online.

The Drexel Archives’ Website Collection contains previous versions of webpages maintained by Drexel University (at the Drexel.edu domain) and those relevant to Drexel, such as articles or content written by Drexel faculty and staff hosted on external websites.

To filter search results in DragonSearch to include archived websites only, search by keyword or subject of interest and then select “Archived Websites” under “Material Type” on the left sidebar.  

Click on one of the records in the search results to open the full record, including a link to the archived webpage in the Internet Archive, the tool the University Archives uses to harvest Drexel websites.

The Internet Archive displays archived websites in a calendar view, making it easy see all days on which a website was captured. For example, the Drexel University Africana Studies Program website (see screenshot below) was captured once a year from 2011 to 2017, until the site was retired and University Archives staff stopped capturing content at this URL.

Only records for high-level URLs appear in DragonSearch. While the website capturing process starts with those URLs, it will often capture subdomains or pages that fall under that URL in the site hierarchy. For example, while there is no search result record for https://drexel.edu/engineering/about/faculty-staff/, this URL is being captured as part of the harvesting of https://drexel.edu/engineering/.

Along with making these web-based historical records discoverable via DragonSearch, the University Archives continues to provide access to Drexel’s archived websites the same ways as before:

1. Via the public interface for Drexel University Archives’ Website Collection
2. Via searching the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

While Archives staff aim to capture the majority of Drexel’s online presence, there are inevitably gaps in the collection due to Drexel’s constantly growing and changing online presence. If you think we should be capturing something that we’re not, please let us know by emailing archives@drexel.edu!

Have more questions about website archives and how the Internet Archive works? Attend the Drexel University Archives’ webinar Saving the Internet: How to Use the Internet Archive on March 17, part of the Drexel Libraries’ Wednesdays@Noon webinar series. Visit our Events Page for more information and to register to attend.