Web Archiving and You

Abstract

We propose an interactive session on web archiving: why it matters, how we do it, and how we can do it better. Web archiving has now been in practice for decades and is relatively well-established in libraries, archives, and museums, but there are many under-explored areas of research and practice. Web archives have been used for teaching, scholarly research, journalism, e-discovery, and art, but remain "emerging" as a source of data. The UMD Libraries have maintained a Web Resources Collection Program since 2009 but how we accomplish this work is always evolving. In this interactive session, we'll frame the landscape of web archiving today, both at UMD and beyond, and introduce issues and opportunities we might take on in the future. We'll also recruit participants to envision how web archives can play a role in their librarianship and act as a resource for the library users they know best. We hope to glean information about a community of potential stakeholders that can help inform next steps for our work on web archives.