Archiving the Web: What can Institutions learn from National and International Web Archiving Initiatives

Institutional Web sites have become an increasingly important tool for disseminating key institutional information to and between staff, students, researchers and the general public. They are widely recognised as key front-office mechanisms for the communication of important information, but the long-term survival of Web site resources and data with non-transient or enduring value is often overridden by the short-term benefits of on-the-fly Web site management. As a result, even institutions with Web site archiving policies can find themselves falling victim to the so-called digital dark ages and fail to preserve valuable information.

This problem grows in significance when the Internet or intranet is the sole publications medium for institutional material or information. Drawing on our knowledge and experiences in archiving and digital curation, this workshop session will explore ways of addressing the challenge of website archiving at an institutional level. As preservation begins at source, the starting point for successful preservation and archiving of Web sites and Web-based resources is quality. The workshop session will therefore be in keeping with the overall theme of the workshop, that Quality Matters.