Thursday, September 26, 2019

Web archive libraries around the world

As time changes there comes a challenge of preserving and documenting the data, so that future generations can use it for their reference and learn about the past. There is massive content on the internet shared by institutes, researchers, scientists, etc. that needs to be safeguarded so that the evolutionary history can’t be lost. Other than preserving the artifacts, web archiving is one such initiative that helps countries to preserve their digital heritage. In most countries, the government creates a general body that is responsible for preserving the content out in the world. Some of these archives are publically available for everyone around the world to read and learn from. So before you jump to a guide to learn about web arching process, let’s first see how many web archive libraries world already has.


Pandora Archive: It’s an archive for preserving the inline publications in Australia and has been founded by the National Library of Australia in 1996. All the Australian web resources have been preserved in collaboration with NGOs, state libraries, cultural organizations, etc. It is named Pandora to iterate its mission – ‘Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia’. All the archived information is available in the public domain and anyone can access and read the documents.

EU web archive: This archive contains data from the EU agencies, institutions, and bodies. This initiative has been taken by the European Union to preserve the EU web content like databases, social media content, external links, dynamic content, etc. A web crawler is used to archive the website and it is run every quarter to update the archival database. The entire archived data is available to the public in the form of an online website. This website comes under EU copyright, therefore be cautious in copying and consuming the content.

Library and Archives Canada: It’s a federal institution that archives Canada’s heritage so that future generations can learn from past history. It is currently the fourth biggest library in the world and contains about 20 million books, 350,000 hours of film, 24 million photographs, and around one billion megabytes of digital repository.

National Library Board, Singapore (NLB): Founded on 1st September 1995, NLB manages the Web Archive Singapore. Some selective domains containing websites showcasing Singapore’s heritage are archived here. The entire collection can be viewed at the NLB and the content cleared by the owners is also available online. This library was established with a vision of creating a knowledgeable nation and expanding learning communities in Singapore.

National Library of Ireland: Founded in 1877, this library works with a mission to collect, preserve, and promote Ireland’s cultural and intellectual heritage. Most of the archives related to Ireland’s history can be found here. Access to the archives is free of cost and material can be used for further consumption as well.

All the countries have their own National Libraries that are involved in archiving and preserving their heritage. Most of the printed documents are digitized and websites are archived into repositories for future references. You can visit the online archives of countries to learn more about their cultural and intellectual heritage.

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