The Community Webs network invites public libraries and cultural heritage organizations around the world to apply to join its Community History Archiving program. Participants receive free web archiving and technical services, training, and professional development and networking opportunities for building community history web archives, especially collections documenting the lives of patrons and groups traditionally under-represented in the historical record.

Participants Receive


  • Each participating organization will receive a guaranteed multi-year free subscription to the Archive-It web archiving service. This includes the ability to archive up to half a terabyte of web material each year (up to thousands of websites and millions of web pages or data). An Archive-It subscription includes tool-specific training, technical support, a public collections page on Archive-It.org, the ability to download archives created under the program, perpetual storage and access provided by the Internet Archive, and other features and services.

  • Each participating organization will have access to additional Internet Archive non-profit services, such as digitization and digital preservation, either for free (as funding allows) or at or below actual cost.

  • Each participant will receive training and educational resources related to digital collections, web archiving, digital preservation, and other topics, as well as access to a community of organizations pursuing similar work and to networking spaces, events, and knowledge sharing platforms.

  • Each participating organization will have the option to leverage program partnerships and integrations to include community web archives in other aggregators or access platforms beyond Internet Archive.



ELIGIBILITY


  • The program is open to any public library or memory institution that is stewarding local history collections.

  • Prior technical knowledge on web archiving, digital curation, or special collections is not required or expected. Training and skills development on these topics are provided.

  • This program is open to public libraries and cultural heritage organizations of all sizes and locations. Our goal is to expand the types of institutions collecting web based content, so any libraries or cultural heritage organizations interested in exploring archiving the web to document local history are encouraged to apply.



PARTICIPATION OVERVIEW


  • Project activities averaging an hour or two hours a week in staff time.

  • Attend 4-6 project-related online training events over the 2 years of the program.

  • Participate in virtual and/or in-person Community Webs events.

  • Opportunities to contribute to documentary materials, blogs, publications (articles or white papers) and other published reports.

  • Participate in the program community via online forum, Slack group, meetings, calls, etc.

  • For additional information, visit our FAQs or contact us with questions.


In the U.S.? See our U.S. Call for Applications.