A History with Web Archives, Not a History of Web Archives: A History of the British Measles–Mumps–Rubella Vaccine Crisis, 1998–2004

This chapter details a case study where the British Library’s search interface SHINE and the Internet Archive were used as part of a wider documentary history of British vaccination policy since the Second World War. It serves of an example of how social and political historians will increasingly use web archives in their work. Histories of the 1990s and twenty-first century will be impossible without them. However, non-digital historians may lack awareness and skills necessary to make best use of these tools. This case study demonstrates to archivists and platform providers the thinking process used by semi-skilled historians. This may act as a guide to what historians want from digital repositories and how this might be provided. Similarly, it may demonstrate what training and methodological development historians require to produce better histories from web archives.