Inviting the user into the virtual archives

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that Web 2.0 features are being used in archival access systems and how more might be incorporated in the future.

This article uses a modified content analysis to highlight archives and special collections using features and functionalities associated with Web 2.0 and social navigation.

A limited number of archives and manuscript collections have made forays into the world of the Web 2.0 and included interactive features on their web sites as well as tried to foster social navigation. The examples in the article do not represent all repositories employing these features, but demonstrate how they can be used to build different relationships with researchers and even among the researchers themselves.

This article discusses ways that Web 2.0 features are being used in archival access systems and how these might be incorporated into other sites the future.

This article identifies archival web sites that support social navigation.