Web Archive

The South Carolina Department of Archives and History operates with legislative mandates to preserve state government information and make it accessible to the citizens of South Carolina.

The South Carolina State Government Website Archives is composed of websites created by the state agencies of South Carolina’s government. The websites were collected using an automated web crawler operated by the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1996 with the purpose of offering permanent access to collections that exist in digital format. In fall of 2005, the Internet Archive began pilot testing their new subscription service, Archive-It, which allows institutions to build, manage and search their own unique web archives. The South Carolina State Government Website Archives allows you to view South Carolina state agency websites from past dates, providing free and open access to the information long after the sites have changed on the live web.

Scope of The South Carolina State Government Web Archive

The South Carolina State Government Web Archive contains a number of digital assets including but not limited to: minutes taken at the meetings of Boards and Commissions; photographs and video of significant events in the state’s history; state-wide statistics; governmental policies; and other significant and related records.

Some of the topics frequently represented in this collection include the delivery of public health services, the protection of the natural environment, the activities of both the Governor’s and the Lieutenant Governor’s offices, the activities of regulatory agencies, the state’s travel and tourism industry, film making, the public education system, welfare and public works programs. Moreover, when seen as a whole the South Carolina State Government Web Archive documents the state’s informational and educational priorities, in terms of developing the web presence of South Carolina’s government.

All websites in the South Carolina State Government Web Archive are captured at least on an annual basis. Most state agency websites are captured quarterly or more frequently.

The Web Archive is divided among several collections. The primary collections are:

For convenience, three pages with direct links to the web sites being archived have been created. If you choose to explore the collection through browsing, please be aware that due to the shifting nature of government structures and changes in web site addresses, the each collection may house web sites that do not perfectly correspond to the Cabinet agencies and alphabetical listings given above.

Use of The South Carolina State Government Web Archive

The materials included in The South Carolina State Government Web Archive are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Whenever materials from our collection are used in a publication or other product, we request that the copy carry a credit line stating “Courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History”.