The September 11 Digital Archive

Blog Post #1

The September 11 Digital Archive is a collection of stories, images, and communications related to the 9/11 attacks, all stored digitally for easy and open access. The project began in 2002, shortly after the attacks and was accepted into the Library of Congress in 2003, which has helped its longevity. The Archive’s goal is “to create a permanent record of the events of September 11, 2000,” as well as to “collect, preserve, and present” the history of the 9/11 attacks. The project stopped taking contributions last year, in order to make a shift towards study and reflection of the materials rather than being an active collection which sought and published items.

The Archive is the result of work from both the American Social History Project at the City of New York Graduate Center and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. The latest staff and the original project team all belonged to one of these two institutions. Reflecting on these two universities and organizations, it is quite clear that this Archive is a US-based and centered project, and as a consequence, primarily highlights that narrative in its collection. Furthermore, both institutions value digital humanities, the latter being a digital humanities platform, and both have published various digital works in history.

The stories within the collections are of Americans and their experiences in relation to the day of the attacks. It is a huge collection with over 98 000 items, each recalling a different memory, experience, or moment. From a practical standpoint, the Archive is a broad database with plenty of research material that can be used at any level — from undergraduate to postdoctoral studies. But even beyond that, the Archive is a memorial; it stands as a permanent recollection of the 9/11 attacks, accessible by anyone, given its digital nature. The stories within it are full of emotions and present a certain image of the attacks, of a vulnerable America, mourning.

The database is surely valuable. It is a great resource for any 9/11 related research or learning. It is useful since it centralizes a lot of data into one website and there is a lot of variety in that data. It is not a normal historical database because it includes items like posters, emails, letters, really anything that was submitted to the editors. One drawback to having this vast amount of data and items is that there is not a sense of organization on the website. Other than the simple search tool and a few of the anniversary collections, there is no thematic or other categorization of the material which can make it hard to find something specific. The website itself is very rudimentary in design and it felt like all the items were in a pile that needs to be sorted through or hunted through.

The database has been around for two decades now, and it has been a few months since it is no longer an active collection seeking submissions. I would have liked to see some improvements in the design and layout of the website to make it an easier interface to use. At first glance, it is not a website that appeals to users, even though it has so much potential. It just looks like it has never been updated. For example, video files could have been uploaded to YouTube so users could view videos directly from the website instead of having to download them. Tiny adjustments like these, in addition to adding more modern features could easily make this database more accessible, especially to high school or elementary school students. Right now, it feels geared towards historians or researchers even though the Archive has a much larger audience in mind, based off their own mission statement.

To conclude, the Archive is a great resource with a lot of primary sources that can be very useful. However, I would have liked to have seen a better interface and a better design overall.