While the core services that the Community Webs program was built around focus on web archiving and born-digital collecting, we know that many local history collections include vast amounts of physical materials that could be made more accessible via digitization. For this reason, we are exploring opportunities to offer subsidized digitization services to program members.
Yes! The Community Webs program is open to institutions in the United States and Internationally.
Community Webs is open to public libraries and other cultural heritage organizations that are interested in stewarding local history collections and that provide free and open access to their patrons, meaning no fees or membership are required to access the organization’s collections. We particularly encourage applications from any organization serving a community that is traditionally underrepresented in the historical record. If this sounds like you, please consider applying! If not, consider getting in touch with us about an Archive-It trial. We offer different pricing levels based on the amount of data archived annually and work with institutions to find a solution that fits both their budget and web archiving needs.
Participating organizations will need access to an internet enabled computer to be able to log into the online course space, view the training materials, and access their Archive-It accounts. Archive-It is a web-based application and requires only a computer with internet access to use. Web archive data is stored and hosted by the Internet Archive and does not require any additional or external hardware or software.
Initial setup and training may require 2-4 hours per week for the first few weeks. After that we estimate an average of 2 hours per week in staff time for the duration of this project.
Community Webs is designed to amplify the local knowledge and expertise of its participants. Participating organizations, in collaboration with their community members, understand better than anyone which local websites hold historical value and best represent their communities. The Internet Archive will help empower participants to develop valuable and relevant web collections through training and peer support on these topics, but developing local collecting strategies and priorities will be entirely up to participants.
The Internet Archive will host the data in perpetuity. The collections an organization creates will remain freely accessible on Archive-It.org, unless the collecting organization requests otherwise.