Western Libraries Leads Web Archiving Efforts to Preserve Digital Records
Published on April 07, 2025
'Cymbeline in the Anthropocene' is an intercontinental network of seven environmentally committed theatre companies. The group’s website is the latest addition to Western Libraries' (WL) archived web collections, highlighting WLs commitment to preserving digital content related to innovative scholarship." Photo credit: Randall Martin
Since 2018, Western Libraries (WL) has been capturing and preserving digital content on the web, allowing researchers and the public to access valuable information that might otherwise be lost.
Web archiving, often called “preserving the web,” can include taking snapshots of websites and digital publications to keep them accessible for future generations. Western Libraries focuses on archiving materials related to its academic areas, including work created by faculty and students, as well as contributions from local organizations.
Using a service called Archive-It from the Internet Archive, Western Libraries collects and stores web content that has enduring historical value to Western University, faculty, staff, students, and researchers, says Lisa Lawlis, assistant archivist at Archives and Special Collections (ASC): “We use Archive-IT to capture web content or records that are at risk of loss or technical obsolescence. People often think since something has been created digitally or stored online that it is permanently preserved. I work with a lot of record creators and donors who reach out for preservation consultation for records created online or websites that are at risk of becoming obsolete or not accessible.” Lawlis works with teams across Western Libraries to preserve web content. For example, the Research and Scholarly Communication Team often gets requests to preserve websites.
During a web crawl, the library captures a specific version of a webpage, freezing its content before any changes or deletions happen. People can access this archived material through Archive-It and the digital library WayBack Machine, which is essential for ongoing research and scholarship at Western University and beyond.
Web archiving is crucial because many resources we rely on today, such as websites and news articles, are only available online, says Lawlis. Since webpages often change quickly—sometimes within just 90 days—capturing this information in real-time is vital to ensuring it survives.
From December 2023 to February 2025, Western Libraries recorded 475 visitors and over 2,600 page views of its archived web collections. “There is an increase in demand for archived web collections to support teaching and research at Western University,” says Lawlis.
Recently, Western Libraries added a notable project to its archived collections: Cymbeline in the Anthropocene, created by adjunct professor Randall Martin in the department of English and writing studies. The project explores environmental themes in Shakespeare’s work and sets up new ways to study these themes through local theatre performance. The ongoing importance of this project makes it a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners, highlighting why web archiving is needed to keep access to important academic work, says Lawlis.
Interested in learning more about web archiving? Reach out to Archives and Special Collections.
