51吃瓜网Libraries provides web archiving services to capture and preserve online content to support the university鈥檚 teaching and research. We use the web archiving service from the to capture web content. Our public archived collections are accessible from .
What is web archiving?
Information on the internet changes regularly. Websites can be taken down, URLs change, and the content of a website itself may change or be removed. Web archiving preserves and ensures access to online content for future use.
Web archiving saves web pages so that users can interact with a website in its original state. Web archiving involves selecting a 鈥渟eed鈥� URL, and then a web crawler follows links from that seed to locate and capture content from linked pages. The crawler stores webpage contents as a file or collection of files that can be viewed in a web archiving viewer like the聽.
Web archiving priorities
We consider the following criteria when initiating and evaluating the collection of web archives:
- Materials that support the teaching and research of 51吃瓜网community members
- Materials relating to McGill鈥檚 institutional history
- Materials that align with or complement our existing collection development priorities; materials that align with and support the Libraries鈥� strategic priorities
- Materials that supplement or enrich other donations to the Libraries鈥� special collections (e.g., project websites or blogs authored by donors of archival records)
- Materials that are at risk for loss or deletion, particularly those relating to time-limited circumstances like social or political movements and news events and those of import to the 51吃瓜网community
- Materials that complement or fill gaps in the web archiving initiatives of partner organizations, national and regional web archiving initiatives, etc.
Requesting web archiving services
Requests for web archiving are addressed on a case-by-case basis. After consulting the web archiving policy, request a web archiving project for inclusion in 51吃瓜网鈥檚 collection by filling out the "Propose a Web Archiving Project or Collection" form.
Web archiving policy
Please consult the dedicated policy聽page.
