University at Buffalo Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Web Archive

Collection

Identifier: 11-2-1398

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Web sites are by nature at risk. Web sites created in response to unanticipated events, whether natural or man-made, are especially ephemeral. Content may be created, updated, removed or deleted with no notice. The web sites are often taken down once the event or crisis has passed.

The university’s COVID-19 Information web site is an example of a web site created in response to a global health pandemic. The web site is used to communicate with UB students, parents, faculty, and staff; to share news, bulletins, and answer Frequently Asked Questions. The university also uses this web site to share authoritative sources of information with the UB community.

The university also adapted existing web sites in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include the university’s administrative gateway, used by Human Resources to share information relevant to faculty and staff; UBNow, a daily newsletter for sharing information and news with faculty and staff; and the News Center, which provides official UB news, information for the media, and links to articles in mass media about UB.

Please note that this collection is meant to be a sample of the university's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is by no means comprehensive.

University at Buffalo Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Web Archive

https://www.buffalo.edu/academicaffairs/academic-resources
http://www.buffalo.edu/administrative-services/for-faculty-staff/information-for-employees-regarding-covid-19.html
http://www.buffalo.edu/administrative-services/ub-forward-employees.safe-workplace.html
https://www.buffalo.edu/campusliving/covid-19.html
https://www.buffalo.edu/campusliving/campus-resident-guide.html
https://www.buffalo.edu/coronavirus/
http://www.buffalo.edu/president/from-the-president
http://medicine.buffalo.edu/covid-19.html
https://www.buffalo.edu/news.html
http://www.buffalo.edu/provost/coronavirus-planning
https://www.buffalo.edu/research/events-announcements/covid-19-impact-research
http://www.buffalo.edu/studentaccounts/student-accounts-covid-19
https://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/student-guide
http://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow

Dates

2020-2022

Creator

State University of New York at Buffalo. Division of University Communications (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Vice President for Academic Affairs (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Administrative Services (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Campus Living (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Office of the President (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Office of the Provost (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Student Accounts (Organization)
State University of New York at Buffalo. Media Relations (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

The University at Buffalo COVID-19 Web Site collection, 2022022 is open to researchers.

Copyright

Copyright is held by The State University of New York at Buffalo, University Archives. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Historical Note

University at Buffalo web sites are selected for inclusion based on relevance to the university’s response to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Subsequently the virus has spread around the world. The first local (Erie County) confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported March 14, 2020. The first case of an individual from the UB community was reported March 18, 2020. The university’s COVID-19 Information web site was published the first week of March 2020 and new and existing university web sites have since been created or updated to include information about the university’s response to COVID-19.

Extent

39 Gigabytes (14 web pages (404 web archive files), 56 files)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

A collection of web sites that relate to the operation of the university in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, web sites that document the communication efforts of the university to the wider university community, web sites that document policies created and implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and web sites that complement the University Archives’ existing collecting areas including student publications.

Arrangement

Web crawls are organized in groups (series) by web site. Within each series web crawls are arranged chronologically by date of capture.

Acquisition Information

The University Archives began capturing the web sites in this collection on a regular basis on March 19, 2020. Websites were crawled regularly using the Heretrix web crawler. Some sites were crawled using Webrecorder. Detailed information about the web crawl schedule is located in the accrual information of each series.

Accruals and Additions

Additional accruals are expected during the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related Materials

3-3-1400: Documenting the University at Buffalo Community Experience during COVID-19 Pandemic collection

9-9-00-3: The Spectrum

Condition Description

Quality assurance was performed on the web archive files on a weekly basis. Known QA issues include failure to capture linked images as well as embedded videos hosted by YouTube. See the collection policy for additional information on technical limitations of the Heretrix web crawler.