1. The September 11 Digital Archive has multiple sub-collections that you can navigate through. The team members that are a part of the project team all work for the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and started working in 2006, some still working on the archive to this day (“Staff”). The original project team that started the making of this archive in 2002, lasted for three years and all the members work mostly for the City University of New York (“Staff”). The few that don’t work for that university, work at George Mason University (“Staff”). Within the archive they have a tab that shows all the partners that helped conserve and generate the contents that make up the existence of the archive. Such as, The Library of Congress to help keep the archive maintained, Smithsonian National Museum of American History to gather the personal accounts of the people who were involved, and a plethora of other businesses/companies that recorded the experiences in different forms of that day in history (“Partners”). The main sponsor who supported the preservation of the archive was Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and it was orchestrated by the American Social History Project (“About”).
2. The purpose for creating this archive is explained in full detail under the “About” section in the archive. The intent behind the creation is simply to keep an abiding documentation of the incident that unfolded in 2001 on September 11 (“About”). Another goal from collecting all of this information is to optimistically encourage good things out of the tragedy that occurred so individuals can share their stories to a large following and feel supported by the community. The creators feel that the stories shared will help the people and public that are working on this project understand the event more clearly (“About”).
3. A. The archive wasn’t necessarily created as the tragedy was happening, but from the time the attack happened there was evidence being collected. The earliest interviews were recorded in June of 2002 by The Middle Eastern American Center Interviews at City University of New York. The collection included in the archive discloses how the people who appear Middle Eastern, managed to deal with the retaliation of Americans in the aftermath of 9/11 (News “Collection Highlight: Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center Interviews”). At the very bottom the copyright is listed on the page and the date is from 2002-2014.
B. It was created for the clear reason that the events of that day needed to be recorded and preserved. Presently, information, collections and stories are being added to the archive (News “Collections Continue to Grow in September 11th Digital Archive”). The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media is relentlessly working to prolong more personal accounts of the attacks (News “Collections Continue to Grow in September 11th Digital Archive”). The start of the digital archive was initially only intended for reading purposes. Rewind about ten years ago, when people weren’t familiar with the internet and weren’t as casual with sharing nearly as much of their private lives as they do now (News “Legacy of the September 11 Digital Archive as an Online Collecting Site”).
4. The “About” page states that it was endowed by organizations to get the digital archive started. They also collaborated with companies to make certain that the history of this event would be upheld (“About”). Methods that the creators used to collect the materials were through a series of interviews and collecting data. They would gather people that were affected by the terrorist attacks, that may have had videos, stories, or pictures from that day. They would also have people submit their experiences, photos, and videos.
5. A. From interviews to songs, people shared stories about what happened on September 11, 2001. In the collections, audio is considered as the music that people wrote as a memorial for the losses of family members and friends. (“Collections: Audio”). A second form of content that has been preserved are videos, that range from the recording of the attack in reality or recollections of personal encounters in a factual style. Later on, they had exhibitions, memorial sites and museums built where people could go to visit and learn about the attacks. They gathered pictures, audio messages, letters and paintings through all of these sites.
B. The digital archive provides a tab where you can share your own personal story about how your life changed because of what happened on September 11, 2001 (“Contribute”). You can share a multitude of items such as stories, photos, videos, and audio recordings. In the collections tab, there is a list of names that have interviews and letters attached to them (“Collections”). The perspective of the archive ranges from