Wonders of the Web Captured Forever…

Launch of UK Web Archiving Consortium will dramatically boost lifespan of key web materials

Launched today, the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC) aims to expand the lifespan of website materials from around 44 days (the same life expectancy as a housefly) to a century or more. Comprising six leading UK institutions, the UKWAC will work, with the permission of rights holders, on an experimental system for archiving selected key UK websites – ensuring that invaluable scholarly, cultural and scientific resources remain available for future generations.

The UKWAC - comprising The British Library, Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher and Further Education Councils (JISC), The National Archives, The National Library of Wales, the National Library of Scotland and the Wellcome Trust – will run for an initial period of two years, during which approximately 6,000 websites will be collected and archived.

Consortium members will obtain the permission of website owners to archive selected sites whilst working collaboratively to explore how to develop compatible selection policies and to investigate the complex technical challenges involved in collecting and archiving web material.

Each consortium member will select and 'capture' content relevant to its subject and/or domain. For example, the British Library will archive sites reflecting national culture and events of historical importance. These could include web pages focusing on key events in national life, museum web pages, e-theses, selected blogs to support research material and web-based literary and creative projects by British subjects. Wellcome will preserve a record of medicine on the web whilst The National Archives will focus on archiving selected materials from six main clusters of government departments. The Scottish and Welsh national libraries will collect material reflecting the culture and history of Scotland and Wales and JISC will preserve websites from leading-edge, innovative ICT projects in UK Higher and Further Education.

Infrastructure costs, such as software, hardware, and ongoing technical development and support will be shared equally amongst the Consortium members. UKWAC will use HTTrack – the open source web crawler to acquire files for storage. The software to carry out the archiving processes – PANDORA Digital Archiving System (PANDAS) – has already been developed and tested by the National Library of Australia and its partners for archiving Australian websites and making them accessible through PANDORA the Australian national Web Archive (see: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/index.html). PANDAS can be set to automatically tag, gather and prepare pages for public display. If pages are not suitable for immediate public access, due to commercial, cultural or privacy reasons, PANDAS can manage appropriate access restrictions.

UKWAC members have selected Magus Research Limited to help extend the PANDAS software for UK needs and provide the shared hardware and technical support they require.

David Thomas, Head of Government and Technology at The National Archives, said: "From government organisations posting travel advice to newlyweds putting their wedding photos online, websites provide a unique insight into the political and social world we live in today. Through collaboration in the UKWAC, The National Archives is taking steps to ensure that government websites are preserved for future generations."

Lynne Brindley, Chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition and Chief Executive of The British Library said: "The launch of UKWAC is an essential step in helping us to understand the scope of the UK web space and how we can set about developing a selective yet useful national web archive. Initially this will be on a voluntary basis, although it is anticipated that secondary legislation will, in due course, allow the BL – and the other legal deposit libraries – to collect web materials. Working with other UKWAC members, we can make real progress in developing complementary selection policies, exploring the best ways to collect and archive web materials and refining how we work together."

For further information see: http://www.webarchive.org.uk
or contact Val McBurney in Press and Public Relations at the British Library. Telephone: 020 7412 7112, fax: 020 7412 7168, email: val.mcburney@bl.uk

Notes for editors

1. The JISC – Joint Information Systems Committee – is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies, and is responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research. It is best known for providing the JANET network, a range of support, content and advisory services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources. In the UK Web Archiving Consortium, the JISC will be selecting a range of JISC funded project websites and working within the ac.uk domain with consortium partners. Information about the JISC, its services and programmes can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/.
2. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of world’s greatest libraries. Its collection of 150 million items covers every age of written civilisation, every written language and every aspect of human thought. Users, including industrial companies and academic scholars, have access to the Library's collection via the Reading Rooms and global document supply services, which provide over 15,000 documents per day to 20,000 customers in 111 countries. Information on the Library's collection and services is available on the British Library website at http://www.bl.uk
3. The Wellcome Trust (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk) is an independent, research funding charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. The Wellcome Library exists as a resource to provide access to the documentary record of medicine. The Web Archiving Project is one way of translating that vision into the digital age.
4. The National Archives, Kew, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk, has one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1,000 years of British history, from Domesday Book to newly released government papers. The National Archives launched the UK Central Government Web Archive on 24 September 2003. This web archive is a collection of some of the UK Government's most popular websites, including 10 Downing Street, the Hutton Enquiry and the Foreign Office. They are archived at regular intervals, some as often as once a week. The UKWAC project will enable TNA to collect a wider range of government websites using different technologies and provide greater flexibility. See http://www.pro.gov.uk/webarchive/
   For press enquiries please contact The National Archives Press Office on 020 8392 5277 or e-mail press@nationalarchives.gov.uk
5. The National Library of Wales is one of the foremost cultural institutions in Wales, and is a pre-eminent source of recorded knowledge and information. It acts as the memory of the nation, storing and giving access to recorded knowledge, in all forms, about Wales. It is a body of international standing, and contributes to a worldwide network of knowledge providers. As a member of the UK Web Archiving Consortium, The National Library of Wales will be selecting web sites of Welsh significance in Welsh, English and other relevant languages, creating a collection that will serve both current and future research needs. Information about The National Library of Wales can be found at http://www.llgc.org.uk/.
6. The National Library of Scotland is Scotland's largest library, and one of the leading research libraries in Europe. It serves both as a general research library and as the world's leading repository for the printed and manuscript record of Scotland's history and culture. It houses more than eight million printed items, over 250,000 electronic titles, and has been a Legal Deposit library since 1710. As part of our involvement in the Consortium, we aim to concentrate on sites of Scottish interest, and see this as an extension of one of our principal functions, "to create, preserve and ensure access to a comprehensive collection of the recorded knowledge, culture and history of Scotland, for the benefit of the people of Scotland and the rest of the world". For further information see: http://www.nls.uk
7. Magus Research (http://www.magus-research.com) is an Internet content and information management specialist which has been delivering services to FTSE-100 companies, institutions, and global organisations since 1995. Magus has a history of creating innovative solutions that help businesses to capitalise on developing technologies.
   Magus provides a broad range of technology solutions including Internet and Intranet projects from concept through deployment and beyond, with expertise from the front-end interface and information architecture through to the back-end content management and database systems. In addition, Magus' search and retrieval, business intelligence and alerting products are designed to help knowledge-intensive corporations to effectively manage their use of the Internet.
8. The establishment of a collaborative Web-archiving project was one of the key recommendations of the Wellcome/JISC Web archiving feasibility study. For further details see:
   http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/node228.html or
   http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/archiving_feasibility.pdf