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Oregon State Archives News
Oregon State Archives Celebrates Ten Years on the World Wide Web
On January 27, 1994 the Oregon State Archives went online, the first Word Wide Web server by an archival institution, either public or private, in the world. We announced it on January 29, 2004 on the 'What's New with NCSA Mosaic' list, a daily update of new websites and additions to existing sites. During the first year of our operation, the only persons who could access the site were those fortunate few who had Internet connections. These users were primarily from educational, scientific, and government institutions.
But, as the Internet became more known and utilized, our server activity increased. In November of 1994, in a presentation at the Second International WWW Conference, Dan Cantrall remarked that our nascent web services were the most successful outreach, or public-orientated program hitherto attempted by our organization. Users from Oregon and all around the world were logging in with their 'Mosaic' (predecessor to Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc) browsers and viewing catalogs of our holdings, photos of artwork in the Archives, and online exhibits. Throughout the 1990's and early 2000's, more and more services were added to fill an ever-expanding demand for online content.
Today, we offer a wide variety of online information: genealogy databases; featured exhibits, legislative records; Oregon Administrative Rules and the Oregon Blue Book. We can't wait for the next 10 years to unfold. Undoubtedly there will be exciting new technology and methods. We will continue to innovate to serve the needs of Oregon State Archives users.