With just a few days to go before the 10th Anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, cultural heritage institutions and the press have been doing a wonderful job of covering the complicated issues associated with preserving and presenting the history and memories of that day. At the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, we’re pleased to be able to reopen the collecting portal for the September 11 Digital Archive as a way to contribute to this effort. With over 150,000 items, 911digitalarchive.org presents the public with one of the best ways to get a sense of how individuals have reflected on the tragedy of September 11th and its impact over the course of the last decade.
Much has changed in the world of digital archives and preservation since we embarked upon this work with our partners at the American Social History Project|Center for Media and Learning (CUNY) in 2002. As a result, we are embarking on the work of migrating the Archive to Omeka so that it will have a infrastructure that will improve both popular and scholarly access to the materials for years to come.
This work is being supported by a “Saving America’s Treasures” grant administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Park Service. Unfortunately, the SAT program was a casualty of the most recent budget fights, and it will no longer be a route to preservation and stabilization for our cultural heritage materials. The funding for this type of work from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission is all similarly endangered in the current political environment.
Perhaps as we reflect on the meaning and impact of September 11th on our nation and our cultural life, we might all contribute a reflection to the Archive. Second, we might write to our Congressional representatives to tell them how essential it is that we maintain our commitment to the preservation and presentation of the cultural heritage materials that play such an important role in those reflections. That commitment demands continued public support for the grant making institutions that make our work possible.