Strategies for web archiving

Through a combination of the strategies known as domain harvesting, selective harvesting, and event harvesting, the aim is to capture as vividly as possible snapshots of Austrian web space and perpetuate them for future generations:

Domain harvesting

To get as comprehensive as possible an image of Austrian webspace,  the whole top level domain .at (situation as of April 2010: about 932,000 domains) is to be recorded, as well as other top level domains related to Austria (.com, .net, .org, .info, .cc, .eu etc.).

Selective harvesting

In addition, for chosen webpages that undergo frequent changes selective harvesting is carried out at suitable intervals. That includes

• National and regional media,
• Dynamic pages from the areas of society, economy, culture, administration/bureaucracy,
• Science/universities, and
• Experimental and/or unique websites on documentation of new technologies (e.g., net art).
  

Event harvesting

Online contents connected with special occasions and major events are archived in further snapshots. By that means we aim to conserve websites that are accessible only for the duration of the event (e.g., national elections).

Access and storage

The first stage of the project web archiving serves to collect data. Those data will not be made accessible to users until the second stage. On legal grounds accessing the web archives will be possible only on the premises of the Austrian National Library and at selected other libraries.

A copy of the data will be stored in the high security data storage unit of the Federation in St. Johann in Pongau.