The September 11 Digital Archive

Before I even went on the site, I knew that the September 11 Digital Archive would be a very moving experience.  The events that happened on this day were some of the most horrific things that most of us will witness in our lifetimes.  That being said I think this site did a good job of capturing this fact: that the events of this day are now a part of all of us.  Not only were stories accepted from these that were directly affected by this tragedy, but also anyone with a story to share could submit.  There were many from all over the country that had shared their story, reinforcing the together feeling that all Americans had in the weeks immediately following the attack.

This site was easy to navigate through with the quick links of simply Browse, Repository (which had everything broken up into specific categories like "Satan in the Smoke" Emails), and Special Collections.  The subcategories within each were also clearly laid out, and so it was very easy to find either a story or a picture or a video within Browse, or see how Chinatown was affected within Special Collections.

What I most liked was that there was an FAQ page with quick facts about 9/11 as well as things before and after the attacks.  There is also a links page with a comprehensive list of other sites dedicated to September 11, 2011.  Usually it isn’t a good idea to take people away from your site, but I think that in this instance it works.  This site is all about capturing the events of the day, not really a memorial to those that had been killed, but if that was what you were looking for it was listed on the links page.

All of this, in my eyes, definitely fulfills the website's purpose, which is to "collect, preserve, and present the history of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath."