The document discusses the British Library's efforts to archive interactive narratives and emerging digital formats. It summarizes the library's process of identifying websites for collection, determining UK authorship, categorizing formats, and collecting using tools like Heritrix and Webrecorder. While tools like Conifer are good for multimedia but time-consuming, ACT allows for large automated captures but has limitations. The library has collected over 196 interactive narrative sites so far and encourages nominations for additional websites to archive.

1. Archiving
Interactive Narratives
at the British Library
Lynda Clark @Notagoth
Giulia Carla Rossi @giugimonogatari
Stella Wisdom @miss_wisdom
ICIDS 2020 – 3-6 November 2020
#ICIDS20 https://giuliac.itch.io/the-british-library-simulator

2. www.bl.uk
Emerging Formats &
UK Non-Print Legal Deposit (NPLD)
2
“The term 'emerging formats' refers to types of publication that are in
scope to collect under the UK’s Non-Print Legal Deposit Regulations, but
whose content and structure are more challenging compared to those
currently collected.”
(https://www.bl.uk/projects/emerging-formats)

3. www.bl.uk
Focused on two format types:
• Book as mobile apps
• Web-based interactive
narratives
3

4. www.bl.uk/projects/emerging-formats
Identify Collect
• Outreach activities led us to collecting selected works
• Collaborations help us understand the digital publishing
landscape and provide us with examples
• We are testing our collection methods to see what
works for complex digital publications
4

6. 2015 Off the Map Winning Game:
“The Wondering Lands of Alice”
Team Off our Rockers, De Montfort University in Leicester
YouTube flythrough: https://youtu.be/7bwx4uUnbV4

7. Gothic Novel Jam 2018
We received 46 entries submitted by people from all around the world including UK, Australia,
America and France.
https://itch.io/jam/gothic-novel-jam/entries

8. For 2018 & 2019 International Games Week in Libraries, the British Library hosted
The Narrative Games Convention: AdventureX
http://adventurexpo.org/
For 2020 there will be an online game jam: AdvXJam, https://itch.io/jam/advxjam

9. 8th to 14thNovember 2020
http://games.ala.org/international-games-week
http://games.ala.org/gaming-at-the-british-library

10. https://www.bl.uk/case-studies/lynda-clark

11. www.bl.uk
Interactive Narratives Collection
• Part of E-publishing
Trends/Emerging Formats
• 196 sites (and counting!)
• Mix of text, sound and video
elements
• Different types of interactions
(hypertext, parser-based, choice-
based)
• Captured with Heritrix +
Webrecorder
https://www.webarchive.org.uk/en/ukwa/collection/1836

12. www.bl.uk
Process
•Identify
•Locate
•Determine UK authorship
•Categorise
•Collect
•QA
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13. www.bl.uk
Collect
Collection Tools:
( )

14. www.bl.uk
QA

15. www.bl.uk
Findings
•Conifer:
•😊 Great for video, audio etc
•😟 Time-consuming, manual
•ACT:
•😊 Large scale, easily scheduled, automated
captures
•😟 Limited success with some formats

16. www.bl.uk
Nominate a website for archiving!
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https://www.webarchive.org.uk/en/ukwa/info/nominate

17. www.bl.uk
Thank you!
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@Notagoth
@giugimonogatari
@miss_wisdom