Online Archival Repository Websites

Comparison of Two Archival Repositories Websites
The New York State Archives website provided access to textual records, photographs government documents, artifacts, and manuscripts. The digital collection archive is mostly derived from the New York State Archives, New York State Museum, and the State Library. From the collection of information, one can access from the website it is mostly historical in nature, which makes the website highly targeted towards genealogists, historians, and K-12 students. Looking at the Florida State Archives website, it does not offer as much information as the New York State Archive, but it does provide select archival resources that have been pulled from the collections held in the State Library and Archives of Florida. The website has mainly digitized materials and information that illuminates the state's culture and history. This makes the website mostly geared towards genealogists, historians, and K-12 students. The website is quite different from the New York State Archive in that the domain used does not show it is a state-owned website and this might be slightly confusing for researchers. Although there are links from the state library, it should be made easy to recognize and relate it back to the state library archives. In complete contrast, the New York State Archive uses a subdomain of the state website and this confirms authenticity easily. The website also has numerous digitized collections including audio and video, online catalogs, and ancestry of the State. For a researcher, this would be valuable information depending on what they are researching.
The primary mission of the New York State Archives is to lead efforts on behalf of all New Yorkers in the management, preservation, ensuring open access to, and promoting the wide usages of the records held within the archive (New York State Archives, n.d). The mission is well reflected on the website in that there are numerous archives posted and accessible on the website. However. there are others whose catalogs are on the website, but one has to visit the state library in order to access the information. Although this does go against their mission, it is clear the mission was crafted with the free and easy access to the information not only online but also offline at the library. With a vast array of information being held on the website, the State Archive website does reflect the mission of the archive. The mission of the Florida State Archives is to preserve and make available the permanent historical public and private records of Florida within their custody to the public (State Archives of Florida, n.d). The information offered on the archival website is selected based on the significance of events and individuals in the state's history with an aim to educate the Floridians and other people around the world. With this in mind, it is clear that the information offered is not as comprehensive as one would expect especially if they are conducting non-historical research. The material offered online is not meant to be used for research purposes, but rather for educational purposes. Therefore, the information cannot be solely utilized for research, but it can form a good basis for a research study.
The two institutions have a web presence, but the level of presence is what differentiates them from each other. The target audience for the two archival websites is similar because they both hold historical information pertaining to their respective states. The New York web archive holds numerous information and it has links that direct one to more relevant information that they might be seeking. In complete comparison, the Florida State archive is quite limited in scope and information that it holds. The two websites do have photographs, video, audio, and documents that pertain to their respective state history and they have been digitized to make access to them easy for the general public. Education is at the fore front of both websites and they have created online classroom content that can be used by teachers to guide their students. The educational content is well defined and there are numerous images and photographs used to represent the information. The New York Archive also accepts submissions from students in grades 4-12 for a reward program that encourages the students to explore the wealth of information being held in the archives. The award consists of a cash prize and certificates. Any researcher who wants to perform genealogical research can be able to use the two websites and they will uncover vast information, however, they might be forced to visit the physical archive at some point since not all the information would be available on the websites.
If a researcher is beginning to conduct their research they can comfortably use the website archives to uncover information. However, they would not find all the information they would be seeking, which would then force them to visit the physical archive. With that said, the websites offer a nice place for one to start conducting their research and the information is readily available. Since the two websites have loads of information one can access the information at their comfort and pace without worrying about timelines as would be the case with the physical library archive. The only issues one would find could be based on the topic they are researching. Not all information has been digitized and placed on the website, therefore, one would have to visit the online catalog to establish if the information they are seeking is available online or not. The Florida archive is limited to the information one would find and though the website has indicated one can begin their search online, the researcher would not make much progress as compared to the New York online archive. The two websites have included online catalogs and search facilities that would make it easy for a researcher to search for particular information that is of interest to them. The New York online archive has included a guide that would assist researchers to get particular information, and they have also included research tools that have some finding aids to assist the researcher. This makes it easy for someone to search for and find relevant information easily. The Florida State archive has categorized the collections based on topics and one can drill down to a particular topic when searching.
The Florida State website archive should incorporate as much information as the New York website archive. This would make the website more appealing to researchers and would also save the researchers the time they have to spend visiting the physical archives within the library. The search facility could also be improved on the Florida website in order to allow a researcher to find information faster without having to figure out the collection the information should be in first. Including some research tools and guides on how one can find information on the website would be helpful information. Including such information allows a researcher to better understand how they can find information instead of spending too much time trying to figure this out by themselves. The New York website could also include information regarding genealogical research, which is the main purpose of the website. Including this information and offering some of the popular collections to the visitors would allow individuals to understand the genealogy of the state better.

Discussion Board Answers
The driving force behind the archival profession is the desire to collect, preserve and promotion of historical information regarding a state, country, business, or other entity. With a better understanding of our past, we can be able to formulate a future that is brighter and this should be motivation enough for becoming an archivist (Hunter, 2015). Another driving force for the archival profession is the desire to learn widely regarding different topics. As an archivist, one will have to learn a lot from the different collections they will be processing and if one does not like discovering new information they would find the work boring and tiring. The collection of archival materials is beneficial in ensuring that a topic that is of interest to individuals does not get lost. There might be numerous information regarding the particular topic but with only relevant information being archived, others will be able to get the information easily. Historical data is vital for any researcher and without archival materials, most researchers would find it hard to access the information for their researchers. Archival materials can be used for educational purposes especially in regards to the history and culture of a state or country. This information should be well preserved to ensure that future generations can learn where they came from and their different cultures. An archive is only important based on the number of people who are interested in the particular collection. If an archive does not have people visiting its collection, then there would be no addition and contribution to the particular collection, which would result in the collection being deleted. The interest that a particular archive arouses in individuals is what would result in others making suggestions for what should be included and the collection would be shared or recommended for others.


References
Hunter, G. S. (2015). The Archival Profession and Society. The American Archivist, 78(2), 285-287.
New York State Archives. (n.d). About New York State Archives. from http://www.archives.nysed.gov/about/index.shtml
State Archives of Florida. (n.d). About Florida Memory. from https://www.floridamemory.com/about/