A Mississippi State University page on the Internet’s World Wide Web has been rated among the top 5 percent of all sites on the Internet by Point Survey, a national rating service.

The Historical Text Archive site, maintained by history professor Don Mabry, may be accessed at http://www.msstate.edu/Archives/History/.

The WWW is the multimedia extension of the Internet, a worldwide computer network.

HTA was originated in response to the need of historians to have an electronic storage and retrieval site and to demonstrate the advantages of such sites for study and teaching. It is supported by the University’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Computing Center.

Point is a free service which rates and reviews the best sites on the WWW. Its list of top ten sites has been featured on CNN and in many publications, and Point Survey ratings are provided to media around the world.

The official rating of the HTA by Point says: “This page from Mississippi State University claims to be the oldest…site around for historians. Whether or not it’s the oldest, it’s certainly one of the most complete we’ve found, with pointers to historical documents and papers around the world. Not strictly for scholars and students, but darn close.”

Top sites are chosen by Point’s staff of reviewers who surf the Web daily looking for the “best, smartest and most entertaining sites around.”

Point is based in New York City and may be accessed at http://www.pointcom.com/.