Web archiving

“Web archiving is the process of collecting portions of the World Wide Web, preserving the collections in an archival format, and then serving the archives for access and use.” (International Internet Preservation Consortium)

“Web archiving is an international, digital preservation and curation-based discipline that acquires web resources and data published on the Internet. It ensures the data is selected, curated, and digitally preserved, and makes the resources available for future consultation and research.” (Library and Archives Canada)

Web archiving at Concordia

Concordia Library collects and preserves web content to support learning, teaching, and research at Concordia and to help ensure enduring access to at-risk web-based resources for the Concordia community and beyond.

Library web collections

Records Management and Archives (RMA) collections

Web archiving policy

Concordia Research Projects Web Archive Collection – Call for submissions

About the collection

Concordia researchers regularly create and host websites as part of research projects, often in the context of short-term grant cycles. Without ongoing funding and maintenance to sustain them, these websites become increasingly vulnerable over time. To address this issue, Concordia Library archives selected research project websites and web-based research publications using Archive-It, a web archiving service of the Internet Archive. The archived captures will be made available on the Concordia University public Archive-It webpage. This service aims to ensure that web-based research at Concordia remains accessible in the long term. For more information on web archiving, see the Concordia Library Web Archiving Policy (G-24).

Submitting a website for inclusion in the Concordia Research Projects Web Archive Collection

Before submitting a website for inclusion in the collection, please review the following criteria for inclusion and exclusion.

Inclusion criteria

Research project has a strong Concordia connection (e.g. research team members are Concordia faculty or project website is developed and maintained by a Concordia research centre)
Project is no longer active or is reaching its end
Website contains unique scholarly output not available elsewhere
Website is publicly available

Exclusion criteria

Websites that require authentication (e.g. password-protected or paywalled websites)
Search engines
Social media accounts
Websites hosted on the Concordia.ca domain

Submissions are welcome anytime. The Digital Preservation Committee meets once each semester to evaluate new submissions. Everyone who submits a website for inclusion will be contacted and informed as to whether their website will be added to the collection.

To submit a website for inclusion in the collection, please complete the proposal form linked below.

Concordia Research Projects Web Archive Collection - Submission form

Are all submitted websites added to the collection?

No, the committee will evaluate all submissions and make the decision to accept or reject submitted websites. Everyone who submits a website for inclusion will be contacted and informed as to whether their website will be added to the collection.

Who can submit a website for inclusion in the web archive collection?

Anyone affiliated with a Concordia research project is welcome to submit a website for inclusion. The Digital Preservation Committee will evaluate all submissions and communicate their decision to accept or reject a submission based on the above criteria.

How long does it take for a website to be archived?

Reviewing and refining web archive captures is an iterative process that takes time. Depending on the size and complexity of your website, it can take anywhere from two weeks to several months before a capture is saved and made available in Archive-It. Ideally, the website remains available on the live web during this time to ensure that we get the best capture possible.

Why are certain websites excluded?

Websites that require authentication (e.g. password-protected or paywalled websites), search engines, and social media accounts are excluded due to known technical limitations of Archive-It. These exclusions may change in the future as we continue to monitor developments in Archive-It's capabilities to archive certain types of web content.

Websites hosted on the Concordia.ca domain are excluded because they fall under the scope of the Record's Management and Archives web collections.

Can I submit a website that I didn’t create?

Anyone affiliated with a Concordia research project can submit a website for inclusion. In some cases, additional permissions may be required. See the Concordia Library Web Archiving Policy (G-24) for more details.

Is there a cost associated with this service?

No, submitting a website for inclusion is free, and the archived websites are freely available to the public.

Will the archived website look the same as the live version?

A reasonable effort will be made to preserve the original appearance and functionality of a website, but some components may not fully capture or replay in the archived version due to the technical limitations of available web archiving tools.

How is Archive-It different from the Wayback Machine?

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) is a free-to-use resource. Archive-It is a fee-based subscription service offered by the Internet Archive. Libraries, archives, and other institutions use Archive-It to curate collections of web-archived content because it offers more control over how content is preserved and made accessible. Archive-It features include custom descriptive metadata to preserve context, full-text search for improved discoverability, and access to technical support.

Can I request that my website be removed from the collection?

Yes, please contact lib-webarchiving@concordia.ca to submit a take-down request. See the Concordia Library Web Archiving Policy (G-24) for more details on how requests are handled.