Conference Agenda

For the past 20 years, as part of the cooperation with associated regional centres, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) has been able to call on a network of external contributors throughout France to complement national collections with regional and local websites. This collaboration began with the 2004 regional elections and has been strengthened since then.

This network of 26 printing legal deposit libraries is called upon for every electoral collection with a local dimension (municipal, departmental, regional and legislative elections). These libraries also have the opportunity, thanks to an organisation of regional collections and a collaborative curation tool, to select websites related to the political, economic, cultural and social life of their region. They were able to offer local selections during the Covid-19 pandemic. This organisation allows them to participate in the creation of tomorrow's heritage as part of the shared challenge of preserving regional heritage online. In return, they can promote local content, related to their region, through « guided tours » into the BnF search application : « Archives de l’internet ».

In addition, since 2014, French law has authorised remote access to BnF's web archives in these partner libraries. This remote access is currently available in 21 of those and allows them to highlight web archives to the general public as well as to students and researchers during events such as the European Heritage Days or workshops and training courses.

This two voices presentation will include a feedback from one of those libraries, the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (Bnu). The Bnu has been involved in the electoral crawls since 2007, is in charge of a regional collection for the region Alsace since 2013 and has developped many services to accompany the work of researchers on web archives.

The evolution of the web presents challenges in preserving Brazil's internet history and protecting relevant digital content. This study underscores the importance of web archiving for preserving this history, enabling access to historical information, and preventing data loss. The "arquivo.ong.br" project, an essential initiative in this context, exemplifies the significance of these efforts.The growth of digital documents, including text, databases, images, audio, video, and websites, has been recognized since the early 2000s. In 2010, the National Archives of Brazil initiated the AN Digital program to preserve and provide access to digital archival documents, emphasizing the importance of preserving digital content. In 2021, the National Archives Council (CONARQ) established the Technical Advisory Chamber (CTC) for the Preservation of Websites and Social Media, aiming to preserve dynamic digital documents. Additionally, legislation seeks to criminalize the misappropriation of digital assets from official websites. Early research by Dantas (2014) highlighted the absence of web page collections in Brazilian institutions, leading to the creation of the Buscas.br collection. Projects like "arquivo.ong.br" are critical for preserving Brazil's digital memory, highlighting the ongoing need for their development and enhancement. Other recent projects like ARQWEB and Graúna also focus on preserving web content. The Arqweb project, initiated in 2022 by the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), aims to archive partner institution websites and government sites. Similarly, the Graúna Project, developed by the NUPEF Institute, focuses on preserving the memory of the internet by archiving websites related to human rights, the environment, culture, and health. The "arquivo.ong.br" project, affiliated with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, serves as a important resource for preserving web archives, including presidential election websites and COVID-related content. It has accumulated around 50GB of diverse digital data. The project uses tools like Heritrix for automated web data collection and Pywb for user-friendly access and exploration of preserved files. Pywb allows users to search, browse past website versions, and interactively explore the archive, making it an essential source for researchers, academics, and anyone interested in Brazil's web history.

Since its establishment in 1892, the National Library of Israel has been dedicated to the collection and preservation of the historical, cultural and intellectual story of Israel and the Jewish people. This mission has undergone various transformations over the past centuries in tandem with the changes that the Jewish people and the state of Israel have experienced. The advent of the internet as an information store has expanded our understanding of community, nationality and culture at large. In particular, the diasporic quality of the Jewish identity is reflected well in the wide-ranging and early use of online spaces to the benefit of individuals and communities.

Over the past decades, the internet has enabled Jews in Israel and the diaspora to preserve and share their cultural heritage, practices, and stories. It is a diverse and dynamic space where stories, memories, values and identities are shared and preserved across languages and borders. From personal blogs and social media accounts to digital archives and educational resources, the Jewish Internet showcases the richness and complexity of a heritage that spans centuries and continents. Since the early 2000s, The National Library of Israel has recognized that the preservation of contemporary Jewish identity hinges on the preservation of this digital heritage. Consequently, a large assortment of methods and tools have been implemented over the last decades—which we are still attempting to refine and restructure in order to meet the everchanging digital landscape.

Alongside our in-house efforts, we are actively working on ways in which we might be able to foster collaborative partnerships with other cultural institutions, academic researchers, and Jewish communal organizations. Some of these collaborations will engage in curatorial work (by region/language and by topic), while others will address legal and ethical concerns. In the IIPC conference we would like to present the progress made so far by the National Library of Israel, and raise a number of strategic, ethical and practical dilemmas that we face going forward.