Digital Archives
The Seattle Municipal Archives is preserving born-digital City records in a variety of ways:
Digital Collections
Digitized and born-digital images, audio, moving images, and maps are searchable on the Digital Collections site. Paper records selected for digitization are also available here. Our Searching for Records in the Seattle Municipal Archives e-learning course provides instructions and tips for using the site.
Archived City Websites
City of Seattle websites have been harvested quarterly since 2012 and are publicly available through Archive-It. From the City's main Archive-It page, you can search for specific departments, topics, people, programs, or other keywords. Search results will display all dates for which captures are available. With the exception of a select number of sites that were no longer available for capture as of 2020, social media sites are available through ArchiveSocial. Check out our short Searching the City's Historical Web e-learning course to learn more about this tool.
Archived Social Media
ArchiveSocial captures official City social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others), as well as some older legacy accounts. Captures include all posts and comments back to the beginning of the account. ArchiveSocial is publicly accessible and fully searchable. A select number of sites that were no longer available for capture as of 2020 may be found through Archive-It. Check out our short Searching the City's Historical Web e-learning course to learn more about this tool.
SMA provides access to processed email collections through ePADD, software specifically designed for searching and viewing historical email archives. These collections are available for use on site only in SMA's research room. Visit our Finding Aids to see which collections are available and contact SMA to make an appointment to view these records.
Electronic Records
SMA's electronic records full-text search interface includes processed born-digital textual records, the bulk of which are electronic Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations including subject files, correspondence, reports, and memos. This search tool is available for use on site only in SMA's research room. Visit our Finding Aids to see which collections are available and contact SMA to make an appointment.
