The Library of Congress Web Archives (LCWA) is composed of collections of archived web sites selected by subject specialists to represent web-based information on a designated topic. For example: Iraq War 2003 Web Archive, September 11 2001 Web Archive and several United States Election Web Archives. The web sites were harvested by the Internet Archive and were cataloged using the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). All or some of the nearly 20 collections can be searched simultaneously on the descriptions or on one structured field. A collection overview informs the user on the scope, the collection period, the number of harvested sites and the applicable copyrights per collection. Within one or more collections the user can browse on subject, person names or title of the archive web sites. The search result list offers the choice between bibliographical information on the web site or viewing the archived home page directly. The LCWA header shows how many versions of the web site are archived and offers further browsing options between those versions, similar to the Internet Archive. For example, the United States Election 2010 Web Archive is part of a continuing effort by the Library’s Web Archiving project Minerva to evaluate, select, collect, catalog, provide access to, and preserve digital materials for future generations of researchers. This archive is a selective collection of approximately 1,250 sites archived between July 2010 and December 2010, produced by congressional and gubernatorial candidates whose names appeared on ballots for the November 2, 2010 midterm election.
Example of the presentation of a web archive (webarchief) to the general public, aiming at researchers as well.