Information for webmasters and site owners

Who is the UK Web Archiving Consortium - UKWAC?

In 2004 a number of major UK institutions joined together to form the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC) with the aim of sharing the costs, expertise and facilities required to archive selected websites for the benefit of future researchers. The institutions that form the Consortium believe that there is enough consistency in the business requirements of web archiving to create a joint project to share the operational environment for the web archiving process. For more information about UKWAC please see http://www.webarchive.org.uk/.

The institutions that form UK Web Archiving Consortium are, the British Library, The National Archives, the Wellcome Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

How does the Web archiving Project work?

Each consortium member selects and captures content relevant to its subject and/or domain. For example, the British Library archives 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.

Does this mean that UKWAC will take over hosting my web site?

No, you will still be responsible for hosting and maintaining your live web site just as you do now.

Won't my users become confused between archived and live web sites?

We don't believe so. The UKWAC archive is clearly marked as containing archived web sites, not the 'live' ones, and links are provided to your current live web site. All users will benefit from having access to material that is no longer available on live web sites.

Google can't find my URL when I type it into the search box, why?

We have deliberately excluded search engines from crawling the contents of the UKWAC archive. This is to support site owners and to ensure there is minimal confusion between 'live' and archived versions of sites. When a user searches for sites they always get directed to the 'live' site and not an archived or 'old' version.

How does the archiving work?

UK Web Archiving Consortium uses software developed by the National Library of Australia and used to build their Pandora Archive - see http://Pandora.nla.gov.au This software is used to manage the process of gathering web sites.

The software works in a similar way to a browser in that it makes requests of a host for files. The software follows links within a site and gathers files it finds. It is capable of gathering database driven sites such as PHP or ASP sites. We can't however gather the contents of databases - the so-called 'deep web' - such as library catalogues.

The software cannot gather any material that is protected behind a password, nor can it crack or break passwords.

What am I doing when I grant UKWAC a copyright licence?

When you grant UK Web Archiving Consortium a copyright licence, you are permitting it to make a copy of your web site, to store it and to make it accessible to the public for the duration of the project in an archive of web sites held on a server owned by the UK Web Archiving Consortium. If the project is successful, you are also permitting us to take the necessary steps to preserve your web site as part of the Library's permanent collections and to make it accessible to the public now and in the future through a server hosted by UK Web Archiving Consortium. This process might include the copying of files to different formats so that they remain accessible as hardware and software changes in the future.

What is this licence?

In accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission to copy a publication (which includes websites) must be obtained from the publisher/author. As the UK Web Archiving Consortium wants to copy more than a substantial portion of your web site, which in legal terms constitutes a publication, we must seek your permission. We also need your authorisation for public access to your archived site 'Granting a licence' is the legal term for giving permission to copy a publication. The licence consists of the letter sent to you requesting that you grant UK Web Archiving Consortium a copyright licence and, if you agree to grant it, your returned copyright licence.

Am I giving away copyright in my web site?

No. You still retain full copyright in your web site, both in the live version of your web site and the archived version in the Consortium's archive. If any third party wanted to copy more than a reasonable portion (as defined by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) either from the live version of your web site or from the archived version, they would still be obliged to seek your permission.

Is the UKWAC Archive run on a commercial basis?

No. Access to all websites in the UKWAC archive is free of charge, and there is no charge for having your website in the UKWAC archive.

My site links to web sites belonging to other organisations, will those sites be archived along with mine?

No they won't. Links to sites that are external to your own will not be archived.

My site has a private area accessible only with a user ID and password, will this be archived?

No. Usually, secured areas like these will not be archived. You may however choose to give UKWAC a user ID and password and to allow archiving of these areas. Please feel free to discuss this with us.

How often will my web site be archived?

A decision will be made on the frequency of capture desirable for each web site based on the publication pattern and the stability of the site.

How will my archived web site be displayed?

For an example of how you web site will be displayed in the archive please see: http://www.webarchive.org.uk. When the archived version of your web site is accessed, a title entry page is displayed first. This provides introductory information about the title including a link to your live site, a general statement about copyright and a link to your own copyright statement if such a statement is provided. If access to a web site needs to be restricted for some reason (for instance, it is a commercial title, or the contents are sensitive) the necessary protective measures can also be put in place. We are happy to discuss this with all copyright owners.

Who can I contact to ask questions?

Please feel free to contact UK Web Archiving Consortium at any time with our feedback form.

I produce a website, can I suggest it go in the UKWAC archive?

Yes. We'll be pleased to hear suggestions from you. You can use our Submission Form to make your suggestions. We won't necessarily accept every suggested web site for archiving but we'd still be pleased to hear about your site.

Can I suggest web sites produced by other organisations or people?

You could, but we need to get permission from the creators or publishers of those web sites before we can archive them.