Web Archiving
What’s web archiving?
Web archiving is the process of collecting portions of the internet, preserving it in an archival format, and making it accessible to researchers and the public. Western Libraries uses Archive-It to capture and preserve online content.
Why is it important?
Information on the internet changes regularly. According to the Internet Archive, the average webpage lasts approximately 90 days before changing, moving, or going offline. Web archiving preserves and ensures access to online content for future use.
What webpages has Western Libraries already archived?
You can find our archived web collections at Archive-It - University of Western Ontario (archive-it.org). Our collection includes material from Archives and Special Collections, University Publications, and the Ontario Provincial Election of 2018, among others.
The majority of websites included in the archived web collections were captured using Archive IT's Brozzler crawling technology. Brozzler captures photographs and image files that are 1100 x 900 pixels or larger. If images are not appearing while replaying websites or accessing archived web content, please try zooming in or out of the screen. If the images won't replay at all, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Data limits set on scehduled captures include data limits for video content. As a result, not all video content is captured for the archived web collections.
Nominate a website for web archiving
Requests for web archiving must follow Western Libraries’ Web Archiving Policy.
Nominate a website for web archiving using our request form.
