The invention of the archived web: tracing the influence of library frameworks on web archiving infrastructure

Hegarty, Kieran

doi:10.1080/24701475.2022.2103988

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Heritrix), data storage (WARC), and data playback to users (e.g. Wayback), provides a vital set of tools for web histories, but also not the only available method to preserve the web histories (Hegarty K., 2022).…”

Section: Web Archiving Flow Process/ Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploration of Web Contents of Selangor Royal Family using Web Archiving Tools

Mohd Nor,

Saiful Bahry,

Mohamed Shuhidan

et al. 2024

E-BPJ

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This study aims to explore the web contents of Selangor Royal family as an initiative to preserve the contents of social and cultural values. Initially, an exploration of websites’ profiles and the contents of Selangor Royal family by using tools BuildWith and XML-Sitemaps. Then, the selected web pages were then archived using web archiving tools, HTTrack and Conifer. The findings indicate that there are different types of websites and website owners covering the Selangor Royal family-related content. The recorded information and lifestyles of royal family represent value in building Malaysian identity and are significant to be preserved for future discovery.

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Section: Web Archiving Flow Process/ Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploration of Web Contents of Selangor Royal Family using Web Archiving Tools

Mohd Nor,

Saiful Bahry,

Mohamed Shuhidan

et al. 2024

E-BPJ

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“…Data-centered analysis requires significant technical capacity to support web archives' large scale of data, but also requires an understanding of legal and ethical constraints, and tacit organizational practices that shape collection and use of archived web data. As a result, web archives are increasingly understood as sociotechnical infrastructures, aligning with the dimensions outlined by Bowker and Star (2000): Summers and Punzalan (2017) address the role of breakdown and repair in collecting practices; Ben-David and Amram (2018) consider how to reveal the "black boxed" processes of collecting; Ogden (2021) identifies how archiving decisions are influenced by organizational norms and membership; and, Hegarty (2022) analyzes the metaphor of "publication" for web materials relating to institutional archives built on the "installed base" of libraries.…”

Section: Background: Studying Web Archives As Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

All WARC and no playback: The materialities of data-centered web archives research

Maemura

2023

Big Data & Society

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This paper examines the Web ARChive (WARC) file format, revealing how the format has come to play a central role in the development and standardization of interoperable tools and methods for the international web archiving community. In the context of emerging big data approaches, I consider the sociotechnical relationships between material construction of data and information infrastructures for collecting and research. Analysis is inspired by Star and Griesemer's historical case of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology which reveals how boundary objects and methods standardization are used to enroll actors in the work of collecting for natural history. I extend these concepts by pairing them with frameworks for studying digital materiality and the representational qualities of data artifacts. Through examples drawn from fieldwork observations studying two data-centered research projects, I consider how the materiality of the WARC format influences research methods and approaches to data extraction, selection, and transformation. Findings identify three modalities researchers use to configure WARC data for researcher needs: using indexes to support search queries, constructing derivative formats designed for certain types of analysis, and generating custom-designed datasets tailored for specific research purposes. Findings additionally reveal similarities in how these distinct methods approach automated data extraction by relying upon the WARC's standardized metadata elements. By interrogating whose information needs are being met and taken into account in the design of the WARC's underlying information representation, I reveal effects on the emerging field of web history, and consider alternative approaches to knowledge production with archived web data.

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“…By advancing the idea that 'anything that is publicly available on the Internet is published', 6 these guidelines provided a conceptual framework for the library to absorb a wide array of websites produced by individuals, government, businesses and community organisations into their collections (not just those 'published' in a formal sense). 7 Whilst a comprehensive history of Australia's web archiving efforts is beyond the scope of this paper, 8 five key developments are important to detail when seeking to address the inequalities, silences and biases that exist in Australia's web archives. First, the NLA decided early on to take a selective approach to collecting, with an emphasis on the quality of capture and providing immediate access to content.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representing Biases, Inequalities and Silences in National Web Archives: Social, Material and Technical Dimensions

Hegarty

2022

A&M

Self Cite

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Contemporaneous collecting of the publicly available web has provided researchers with an invaluable source with which to interpret various aspects of the recent past. With millions of websites gathered, stored and made accessible in national web archives over the past 25 years, this paper argues for the need to reflect upon, and respond to, the biases, inequalities and silences that exist in these vast repositories. This article presents a research agenda for web archivists and web historians to together think broadly about the social, material and technical dimensions that shape what is included in web archives, and what is excluded. A key challenge impacting this effort is that various complexities and contingencies of archival formation are obscured. These include wider social inequalities, the entanglement of human and machine decision-making in the archiving process, changing dynamics of power over information online and the environmental impact of technical systems. Accounting for these social, material and technical factors that shape the formation of web archives provides opportunities to develop and use archives in ways that better acknowledge both the strengths and limitations of national web archives as a proxy for the web’s past.

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The invention of the archived web: tracing the influence of library frameworks on web archiving infrastructure

Cited by 9 publications

References 35 publications

Exploration of Web Contents of Selangor Royal Family using Web Archiving Tools

Exploration of Web Contents of Selangor Royal Family using Web Archiving Tools

All WARC and no playback: The materialities of data-centered web archives research

Representing Biases, Inequalities and Silences in National Web Archives: Social, Material and Technical Dimensions

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