Susan Deysher
CAST, Inc.

For anyone interested in the history of the Internet and the World Wide Web, there is no better way to view the changes in how information is presented on the Web than to see examples of how websites used to look. With the help of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, you can type in the URL of any website and browse an archived version of the site's contents. The archive currently houses more than 10 billion publicly accessible webpages dating from 1996 when the Internet Archive was created "to build a digital library and other cultural artifacts in digital form, with the purpose of offering permanent and free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public." The Internet Archive has also assembled some special collections of websites that would be especially useful for educators; for example, Web Pioneers includes sites that were pivotal in the development of the Web we see today, and Election Collection 2000, which provides a wide range of sites related to the 2000 Presidential elections.

In addition, the Internet Archive is a great place to find various digital resources, including a huge collection of Moving Images, access to digital text through its Text Archive, and over 10,000 software titles donated by Macromedia through its Made-With-Macromedia Program in the Macromedia Archives.

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