Presentation held (remotely) at: The "Web Archiving: Best Practices for Digital Cultural Heritage" international conference is organized by The National Library of Israel and the Open Media and Information Lab (OMILab) at the Open University of Israel. (http://webarchiving2018.nli.org.il)
The Belgian web is not currently systematically archived. As a result, there is a considerable risk that a significant portion of Belgian contemporary history will be lost forever. To prevent this, the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) funded the PROMISE (Preserving Online Multiple Information: towards a Belgian Strategy) project The aim of PROMISE is to: (i) identify current best practices in web-archiving (ii) pilot web-archiving in Belgium, including access (and use) for scientific research, and (iii) make recommendations for a sustainable web-archiving service for Belgium. This paper will present the current status of the PROMISE project, including the latest results.
Don't Miss Out: Strategies for Making the Most of the Ethena DigitalOpportunity
Investigating the PROMISE of a Belgian web archive
1. Investigating the PROMISE of a
Belgian web archive
Sally Chambers
Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities, Belgium
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
2. Overview
• Introducing the Belgian web
• PROMISE: a feasibility study for a Belgian web
archive
• Web archiving: a State of the Art
• Analysis of user requirements for a Belgian web
archive
• Research access and use of web archives
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
4. The Belgian web is not currently
systematically archived
Introducing the Belgian web
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Source: https://www.dnsbelgium.be/en
11. PROMISE: a feasibility study
for a Belgian web archive
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
12. PROMISE: PReserving Online Multiple
Information: towards a Belgian StratEgy
24 month project financed by Belspo
Scientific start date: 1 September 2017
Royal Library of Belgium
(Project Coordinator)
State Archives Belgium
Research Group for Media and ICT and
Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities
Research Centre on Information, Law & Society
Unité de Recherche et de Formation en Sciences
de l’Information et de la Documentation (URF-SID)
13. • Identify current best practices in web-archiving
and apply them to the Belgian context
• Pilot web-archiving in Belgium
• Pilot access to (and use of) the pilot Belgian web
archive for scientific research
• Make recommendations for a sustainable web-
archiving service for Belgium
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
PROMISE: PReserving Online Multiple
Information: towards a Belgian StratEgy
14. Royal Library of Belgium State Archives Belgium
•Belgian legal deposit law (1965, 2008)
•Preserve all types of documents
a) Published in the Belgian territory
b) Published abroad by Belgians
•Websites as ‘publications’ (like books,
periodicals etc)
•Once part of the legal deposit
publications can not be removed
•Is web-archiving ‘depositing’?
•Web-archiving has been added to the
Royal Library’s mission as of 25.12.2016
•Federal law on archives (1955)
•Preserve documentary heritage of the
federal public authorities
•Archival lifecycle (includes retention and
destruction)
•Information produced by public
authorities and published through digital
media (internet, intranet extranet, social
media)
•Web Archiving is part of the mission of
the State Archives
Archiving the Belgian web
20. Web archiving:
State of the Art
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
21. • 1st PROMISE Report
• Provide an overview of
international best practices
in web-archiving
• v.1 of the report (Jan 2018):
10 initiatives in 7 countries
• v. 2 of the report (Spring
2018): 2 additional
countries
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
22. Methodology
• Literature review with 15
page bibliography
• Semi-structured interviews
with web-archiving
initiatives
• Synthesis: selection,
access, legal & technical
issues
• Recommendations
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
23. Web archiving initiatives analysed:
1. Netherlands (NL & NA)
2. France (NL & INA)
3. Luxembourg (NL)
4. United Kingdom (NL & NA)
5. Denmark (NL)
6. Portugal (Arquivo.pt)
7. Ireland (NL)
8. Canada (v2) (NA & NL – EN &
FR)
9. Switzerland (v2) (NL,
multilingual)
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
24. Selection
• What is Belgian web content?
• Thorough reflection on selection
policy required, e.g. selective,
.be crawl, mixed
• Institutional context of the
Belgian Royal Library & State
Archives
• Involve users!
• Inclusion of social media?
• Develop a partnership with DNS
Belgium Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
25. Access
• Variety of access options, from
no access to freely accessible
• FAIR (Findable, Accessible,
Interoperable, Reusable) as
guiding principle
• Publication of seed lists
• Range of search options
(metadata is a priority)
• Data-level access to the web
archive (e.g. WARC files)
• User feedback loop
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
26. Legal
• Extension of Legal Deposit
legislation in BE to include digital
publication (implementation
guidelines for web-archives
needed)
• Scope of competence: i) .be
domain, ii) .be domain +
additional selection criteria
• Copyright, protection of personal
data (e.g. GDPR), illegal content
• Is remote access possible within
the current Belgian legal
framework?
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
27. Technical
• Analysis of key tools and
platforms (e.g. NetArchive Suite,
BCweb, …)
• Analysis of data formats (WARC
is predominant)
• Models of managing the technical
process (from outsourcing to full
in-house management)
• Explore possibility of IIPC
membership
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Web-archiving: State-of-the-art
28. Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
Digital Scholar Article (Open Access)
29. Analysis of user requirements
for a Belgian web archive
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
30. • Analysis of requirements
related to selection and use
of web archives
• Runs April 2018 - 31 May
2018
• Target 200+ respondents
(currently ca. 150 … )
• Local, regional, national and
international focus
Web-archiving: survey
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
31. 3 target groups for survey:
1. research: students,
academics, anyone involved
in research more broadly
2. archives, libraries,
governmental institutions
3. general public
Web-archiving: survey
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
32. General questions
• Experience with web
archives?
• Demographic info (e.g.
gender, nationality,
education)
• Level of digital literacy
Web-archiving: survey
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
33. Specific questions
• Research questions,
subjects of interest for web-
archiving
• Current levels of
satisfaction with web-
archives
• Preferred search options &
functionalities
• Methods of access, e.g.
APIs
• Interest in collaborating with
Web-archiving: survey
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018
40. Research access to the web-archive:
data-level access
Access to the WARC Files
https://support.archive-it.org/hc/en-us/articles/209643793-Partner-
Guide-to-Downloading-Archive-It-Data
42. Web-archiving workshop
Amsterdam, 6 June 2018
http://2018.dhbenelux.org/workshops/#born_digital
Introduction to Born-Digital Heritage:
from harvesting to analysing web archives
• Introduction to web archiving
• Research using the archived web
• Data-level access to the archived web
• Hands-on web archive challenge!
43. Sally Chambers
Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities
sally.chambers@ugent.be
Thank you!
Web archiving: best practices for digital cultural heritage
Israel, 29-30 April 2018