CyberCemetery is an online archive of websites, videos and documents that serves as an historic record for over 50 defunct United States government agencies and commissions. The need for a permanent archive came to the attention of University of North Texas librarians in the mid 1990s when they realized that websites affiliated with the Clinton administration were disappearing. 

The archive can be browsed by agency name or retirement date or searched by visiting the CyberCemetery site, the USA.gov search engine, Google U.S. Government Search or the National Archives and Records Administration website. CyberCemetery is maintained by the University of North Texas and the U.S. Government Printing Office in partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration. Websites, including internal pages and links, are reproduced in full for public access.

One of the most popular archives in CyberCemetery belongs to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (aka the 9/11 Commission). The archive includes the Commission’s complete report on the 9/11 attacks and is available as a free, downloadable PDF. Other noteworthy archives include reports from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and the National Bioethics Advisory Commission.

See also: Wayback Machine

Learn more about CyberCemetary:

Visitors can browse the CyberCemetery archive.

The University of North Texas Library has more information about CyberCemetary.

Mike Hardy writes about CyberCemetary in "Dead government Web sites haunt the CyberCemetery."

29 Oct 2010