Web Archiving Group

The Web Archiving Working Group was originally established October 2011 by the Content Interest Group. The Web Archiving Survey produced reports in 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2017. All reports can be found on the NDSA OSF page.

The Web Archiving Working Group started new work in January 2022.

2022 Scope of Work

The Web Archiving Survey Working Group will conduct a survey of organizations in the United States and internationally that are actively involved in, or interested in starting, programs to archive content from the Web. This survey, to be published in 2022, will build on previous iterations of the ‘Web Archiving in the United States’ surveys, published in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011. It has been five years since the last published survey, allowing for substantial changes in the field, and to current and future web archiving practices. Since 2017:

  • Archive-It has added 250 new partners;
  • Widely utilized tools have been refined and upgraded:
    • Archive-It (1) launched Brozzler, a browser-based collecting tool in 2020;
    • Webrecorder.io became Conifer;
    • Webrecorder unveiled an improved version of OldWeb.today and introduced ArchiveWeb.page;
  • Multiple articles on Web archiving were published in major, mainstream publications, like the Atlantic, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Nature, leading to further awareness of the practice;
  • Efforts like Project Stand, Archiving the Black Web, and Ethics and Archiving the Web have launched and convened, encouraging conversations about web archiving across varying disciplines and institutions;
  • We faced (and continue to face) the Covid-19 Pandemic, which left librarians, archivists, and historians wondering how to best document new protocols and realities at their institutions, which were often — and sometimes solely — documented and made available online;

‘Web Archiving in the United States: a 2022 Survey’ will be based on previous surveys to provide long-term analysis and further reflect upon changes in the field. Additional areas for potential data collection may include:

  • Funding sources, and money dedicated to Web archiving programs
  • Training and training needs
  • Cataloging of Web collections and description practices
  • Preservation of Web collections
  • Specific collection development topics and areas
  • Barriers to web archiving sustainability

2022 Working Group Members

  • Samantha Abrams, Center for Research Libraries (Co-Chair)
  • Zakiya Collier, Documenting the Now, Shift Collective (Co-Chair)
  • Amy Wickner, University of Maryland Libraries
  • Elana Colon-Marrero, University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library
  • keondra bills freemyn, Project STAND, University of Maryland
  • Melissa Wertheimer, Library of Congress
  • Nick Krabbenhoeft, New York Public Library


(1) ‘Web Archiving in the United States: a 2017 Survey’ notes that: ‘Archive-It has been the favored external service provider since the National Digital Stewardship Alliance began [conducting these surveys] in 2011, when 75% of responding institutions were using it. Use of Archive-It has increased as more institutions embark upon Web archiving; in 2013, 71% of institutions reported use, and in 2016, 87% of institutions reported use’ (https://osf.io/ht6ay/, 20). In 2017, 94% of institutions reported use. Changes to Archive-It impact the entire field of Web archiving.