Web Archiving FAQs
What is the UVic Libraries Web Archive?
The UVic Libraries Web Archive is a collection of archived websites grouped by theme, event, or subject area. Web archiving is the process of creating an archival copy of a website. An archived site is a snapshot of how the original site looked at a particular point in time. The archive contains as much as possible from the original site, including text, images, audio, videos, and PDFs.
Why is the UVic Libraries archiving websites?
UVic Libraries is working to collect and preserve websites because an increasing amount of information can only be found in digital form on websites. A lot of cultural and scholarly information is created only in a digital format and not in a physical one. If it is not archived, it may be lost in the future.
How can I contact the UVic Libraries about its web archive?
Use the online form to ask a question about web archiving activities or to send a message to the Library's Web Archiving Team.
How does UVic Libraries archive websites?
UVic Libraries make copies of websites using the Archive-it service from Internet Archive.
Is there any personal information in the web archive?
The Library collects websites that are publicly accessible. These may include pages with personal information.
Why was my website selected?
Websites are selected by subject experts according to collection strategies developed for each thematic or event collection.
How often and for how long will you collect my site?
UVic Libraries may crawl your site for a specific period of time or on an ongoing basis. This varies depending on the scope of a particular project. Some archiving activities are related to a time-sensitive event, such as before and immediately after an election, or immediately following an event. Other archiving activities may be ongoing with no specified end date.
My site has a password-protected area that requires a user ID and password. Will this protected content be archived?
The Library does not archive password-protected content, unless by special permission from the site owner.
I have a robots.txt exclusion on my website to block crawlers from certain parts of my site. How does this affect your collecting activity?
UVic Libraries attempts to collect as much of the site as possible in order to create an accurate snapshot for future researchers. We notify site owners before crawling and we generally respect robots.txt exclusions. Please contact us immediately if you have questions about this policy.
What will people see when they access the archived site?
Your archived site will appear much like it was on the day it was archived. UVic Libraries tries to capture the content as well as the look and feel. In our interface, there will be a banner at the top of the page that alerts researchers that they are viewing an archived version. Some items do not work in the archive, such as mailto links, forms, fields requiring input (e.g. search boxes), some multimedia, and some social networking sites.
What if I do not want my website to be available on the UVic Libraries’ website? How do I opt out?
If you are a copyright owner of or otherwise have exclusive control over materials presently in the archive, you can opt out of online access to your site by completing this form. Regardless of your decision with regard to online access, your site will still be available to scholars on the Libraries' premises and by special arrangement.
What are the copyright implications of the archiving of our site?
The copyright status of your site remains with you.
I would like to archive my website. Can you help me?
At this time, UVic Libraries does not have a program to help individuals archive their personal websites. However, you may wish to look at the Library of Congress' information about personal archiving.
I was contacted via e-mail by the UVic Libraries about archiving of my site. Why?
The Library notifies each site that we would like to include in the archive, prior to archiving. The e-mail you receive from the Library of Congress contains webarchiving@uvic.ca in the "from" address, and "Inclusion of your Website in the UVic Libraries Web Archive" in the subject line.
If you would like to confirm that the Library sent the e-mail, please contact us and a member of the Web Archiving Team will assist you.