About the UKWAC

Comprising six leading UK institutions, the UKWAC's mission is to ensure that invaluable web-based resources remain available for future generations

Project background

In the digital age, the web has become the information tool of choice. But the internet is a dynamic and unpredictable place, where the intellectual content of websites can be prone to sudden change or loss.

This presents a unique challenge for libraries and other information deposits, who have traditionally created archives for future reference.

In 2003, the Legal Deposit Libraries Act extended the responsibility for legal deposit to non-print materials.

In 2004 the UK Web Archiving Consortium was launched - a collaborative effort by six of the UK's leading institutions to archive web based cultural, scientific and scholarly resources.

The British Library (lead partner), The National Library of Scotland, The National Library of Wales (all legal deposit libraries) together with The Joint Information Systems Committee, The National Archives and the Wellcome Trust are selectively archiving rights-cleared web content to create a digital information store for future generations.

The challenge

The UKWAC chose the PANDAS web-archiving application, developed by the National Library of Australia.

They needed a development partner to host and support the service and further its development. The project came with stringent requirements for risk management and reliability.

The solution

Magus was perfectly positioned to meet this challenge. The entire archiving project hinges on the successful gathering, indexing, retrieval and archiving of selected websites – our core area of expertise.

Magus defined the specification, sourced hardware, installed and configured the software and tailored the solution to the UKWAC requirements. As sites are archived at a high rate, storage space is regularly monitored and upgraded.

In addition, we provide ongoing technical support, and have extensively customised the system for use by the consortium partners.

In 2005, UKWAC was shortlisted for the Digital Preservation Awards.

The site was publicly launched in June 2005. It now contains the archived websites of over 1,000 organisations and continues to grow.

Into the future

Though it was originally envisaged as a two-year project to end in mid-2006, UKWAC looks likely to continue beyond that point, growing and developing as an invaluable archive of reference material is collected.

'We're not trying to archive everything on the internet,' says Dave Thompson, Web Archiving Project Officer at The Wellcome Library, London, 'Instead, we're creating key archives for future research.'

'The web is now a major means of publication,' he continues, 'and when a website disappears, often crucial content goes with it.'

And as the body of material grows, so do the possibilities for using it in new, imaginative ways.

'Magus's expertise is around dynamic content,' says Thompson, 'and they've made some very creative suggestions that can add value. They're an open organisation, and are very happy to talk about the challenges that web archiving presents. They're flexible, competent and extremely creative.'