UK Government Web Archive

Today I learnt how to access old, archived versions of government websites, including those that no longer exist.

The answer? The UK Government Web Archive, hosted by the National Archives. You can browse by category or choose your organisation from an A-Z list. Once you've selected your organisation, you can choose the date of the archived version of their website you'd like to view and away you go. It's really useful, especially for websites that no longer exist (e.g. Inland Revenue). And, of course, it's free.

UK Government Web Archive:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/

For more information about the National Archive's government website archiving project:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/information.htm

National Archives recruiting volunteers to update the statute book

Today I learnt that the National Archives hopes to recruit up to 50 volunteers to update legislation.gov.uk.

Legislation.gov.uk is the government-provided online source for legislation in the UK, managed by the National Archive in Kew. According to an article in the Law Society Gazette*, it is not as current as its commercial rivals Lexis Library and Westlaw because the current editorial team don't have the capacity to constantly update it, and there is no money to recruit more staff.

John Sheridan, head of legislative services at the National Archives, hopes to recruit up to 50 volunteers to bring the database up-to-date by 2015. The volunteers need to have an understanding of how legislation works, but they don't have to be laywers.

*Full article in the Law Society Gazette:
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/opinion/joshua-rozenberg/the-national-archives-recruiting-volunteers-update-statute-book

I read about this on the Inner Temple Library's current awareness blog:
http://www.innertemplelibrary.com/