IIPC Workshop Series: WEB ARCHIVING IN A PROGRAM MANAGEMENT CONTEXT: RESILIENCE AND RENEWAL
Co-organised with Library and Archives Canada and the Library of Congress
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
For over two decades, web archiving practice has needed to demonstrate resilience in the face of multiple challenges, including “the changing nature of the web and how it is perceived; by the constant constraints of available resources and technologies; and by critical legal and ethical considerations” (2023 WAC CfP). From the start, one of the key challenges has also been to figure out how web archiving aligns with other programs.
One of IIPC’s aims has always been to provide a supportive environment where we could share our experiences in launching and running web archiving programs and learn from each other. While it was often a topic of more informal conversations during our events, we also highlighted it in the 2023 Web Archiving Conference with the call for submissions on topics such as program sustainability, agile project management, support for cross-disciplinary teams, and institutional workflow. We would now like to take the conversation further and build on these foundations in a workshop that would also focus on challenges related to developing frameworks and reporting structures, staffing and the perennial question of finding ways to accomplish more with limited resources.
WHO IS THE EVENT FOR?
This workshop is intended for web archiving program managers, along with curators or engineers who play a vital role in organizational decision-making and team coordination, and any others interested in these topics. It is designed to benefit any organization that has an existing web archiving program or is planning to launch one.
FORMAT
Moderated panels on selected topics, including program structure, prioritisation in annual acquisitions, documentation practices, managing program resources, supporting technical infrastructure, and staffing.
AGENDA
PART 1 (8:30-11:00 ET | 14:30-17:00 CET)
08:30-08:45 ET |14:30-14:45 CET ⏺ INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY OF THE SURVEY RESULTS
08:45-09:15 ET |14:45-15:15 CET ⏺ PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Moderator: Abbie Grotke (Library of Congress) Panellists: Ian Cooke (British Library), Ben Els (National Library of Luxembourg), Cecile Christensen (Royal Danish Library)
09:15-09:45 ET |15:15-15:45 CET ⏺ RECRUITMENT AND STAFFING
Moderator: Tom Smyth (Library and Archives Canada) Panellists: Abbie Grotke (Library of Congress), Jeffrey van der Hoeven (KB | National Library of the Netherlands ), Thomas Langvann (National Library of Norway)
09:45-09:55 ET |15:45-15:55 CET ⏺ BREAK
09:55-10:25 ET |15:55-16:25 CET ⏺ DEVELOPING AN ANNUAL PLAN FOR THE PROGRAM
Moderator: Ben Els (National Library of Luxembourg) Panellists: Tom Smyth (Library and Archives Canada), Tom Storrar (The National Archives, UK), Abbie Grotke (Library of Congress)
10:25-10:55 ET |16:25-16:55 CET ⏺ DOCUMENTATION PRACTICES AND POLICY CREATION
Moderator: Friedel Geeraert (KBR | Royal Library of Belgium) Panellists: Barbara Signori (Swiss National Library), Lauren Baker (Library of Congress), Nicola Bingham (British Library)
10:55-11:00 ET |16:55-17:00 CET ⏺ WRAP-UP
PART 2 (13:00-14:20 PT | 16:00-17:20 ET | 25 Jan 8:00-9:20 AEDT | 10:00-11:20 NZST)
16:00-16:05 ET | 8:00-8:05 OZ | 10:00-10:05 NZ ⏺ INTRODUCTION
Speakers: Abbie Grotke (Library of Congress), Tom Smyth (Library and Archives Canada)
16:05-16:40 ET | 8:05-8:40 OZ | 10:05-10:40 NZ ⏺ MANAGING PROGRAM RESOURCES
Moderator: Andrea Goethals (National Library of New Zealand) Panellists: Russell Latham (National Library of Australia), Abbie Grotke (Library of Congress), Tom Smyth (Library and Archives Canada)
16:40-17:15 ET | 8:40-9:15 OZ | 10:40-11:15 NZ ⏺ SUPPORTING TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Moderator: Olga Holownia (IIPC) Panellists: Andrea Goethals (National Library of New Zealand), Laura Wrubel (Stanford University Libraries), Lauren Ko (University of North Texas Libraries)
17:15-17:20 ET | 9:15-9:20 OZ | 11:15-11:20 NZ ⏺ WRAP-UP
PANELLISTS
Lauren Baker is a Senior Digital Collection Specialist in the Library of Congress Web Archiving Section. She plans and manages projects, coordinates an annual web archive collection review, and collaborates with staff across the Library to release new web archive records and collections to loc.gov. She has also led internal staff training, including organizing an online course “Getting Started with Web Archiving.” Lauren serves as a co-chair of the IIPC Training Working Group
Nicola Bingham is the Lead Curator of Web Archiving at the British Library in the Department of Collections. Following B.A and M.A degrees in History from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Nicola began her archival career at Tyne and Wear Archives Service before joining the British Library in 2002. Nicola manages the Library’s web archiving strategy and the on-going road map for web archiving capability, ensuring that stakeholders across the Legal Deposit Libraries, and other partners, have the necessary tools for curating websites according to their own collection development policies. Related Offices: Co-Chair of the International Internet Preservation Consortium Content Development Group.
Cecile Christensen has been Deputy Director General at the Royal Danish Library since 2021. She is responsible for the digital transformation of the library and this includes the IT, program management, information security, AI and communications portfolio and she is temporarily also responsible for the digital Cultural Heritage. Cecile has worked with public digitization for many years and has a Masters degree in Law from University of Copenhagen and from University of London.
Ian Cooke leads the Contemporary British Publications team at the British Library, which is responsible for curation of 21st century publications from the UK and Ireland. This includes the curatorial team for the UK Web Archive, as well as digital maps, emerging formats and print and digital publications ranging from small press and artists books to the latest literary blockbusters. Ian joined the British Library’s Social Sciences team in 2007, having previously worked in academic and research libraries, taking up his current role in 2015. Ian has been a member of the IIPC Steering Committee and IIPC Executive Board and has worked on strategy development for the IIPC.
Ben Els has been the digital curator of the Luxembourg Web Archive at the National Library of Luxembourg since 2017. He has previously worked in the cultural sector, as a project coordinator. Ben completed his Bachelor’s degree in European cultures at the University of Luxembourg, which he followed up with a Master’s degree in comparative literary and art studies at the University of Potsdam.
Friedel Geeraert is an expert in web archiving at KBR, the Royal Library of Belgium. She previously worked as a researcher and coordinator on the PROMISE and BESOCIAL research projects that focused on the development of a Belgian web archive at the federal level. She also represents KBR at the IIPC. She holds a Master’s degree in History (KU Leuven) and in Information and Communication Science and Technology (Université Libre de Bruxelles).
Andrea Goethals is the Manager Digital Preservation and Data Capability at the National Library of New Zealand. In her role she manages a team of specialists with expertise in digital preservation, web archiving, software development and data analysis. She participates in many regional and international groups including the NZ DOI Consortium, Australasia Preserves, IIPC Steering Committee, iPRES Steering Group, Digital Preservation Storage Criteria WG, DataCite CESG, NatLA and NSLA DPN.
Abbie Grotke is Head of the Web Archiving Section, within the Digital Collections Management and Services Division of the Library of Congress. She joined the Library in 1997 to work on American Memory digitization projects. Since 2002 she has been involved in the Library’s web archiving program. She currently leads the web archiving section, which provides overall program management in support of the collecting of web content for the Library’s collections. In her role, she has helped develop policies, workflows, and tools to collect and preserve web content for the Library’s collections. Grotke currently serves on the IIPC Steering Committee.
Jeffrey van der Hoeven is head of the Digital Preservation department at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB). In this role he is responsible for defining the policies, strategies and organisational implementation of digital preservation at the library, with the goal to keep the digital collections accessible to current users and generations to come. Jeffrey is also director at the Open Preservation Foundation, IIPC Steering Committee member and chair in 2023. In previous roles, he had been involved in various national and international preservation projects such as the European projects PLANETS, KEEP, PARSE.insight and APARSEN.
Lauren Ko is a programmer analyst with the University of North Texas Libraries Digital Libraries division, leading the Software Development Unit. She works in the area of web archiving, crawling and access, and, more generally, on the development of software that supports access to and preservation of data. Lauren is one of the co-leads of the IIPC Tools Development Portfolio.
Thomas Langvann is the Product Lead of the Norwegian Web Archive at the National Library of Norway. Thomas has worked in the National Library for 10 years, the first 5 as head of development, where he established the cross-functional web archiving team, and in 2019 he took a lead role in the team, and has since worked as Team lead/Product Lead for the web archive. Thomas has a technical background.
Russell Latham is currently acting Assistant-Director, Web Archiving at the National Library of Australia. Russell has worked in web archiving since 2006. He has worked on development of web archiving infrastructure, building national web archiving collaborations, and curating web many collections. During this time, he has also worked in Digital Preservation at the National Library of Australia implementing new digital preservation infrastructure and developing a digital preservation strategic plan for the Library’s diverse digital collections. He has presented at national and international conferences including the 2019 IIPC web archiving conference. He has a Masters in Library and Information Science and a Bachelor of Arts. From the latter he developed a lifelong love of history which he also engages with in his own time.
Barbara Signori is Head of the Department e-Helvetica at the Swiss National Library in Berne, Switzerland; e-Helvetica is the collection of born-digital Swiss publications – e.g. websites, e-books, e-journals, theses, and standards. Barbara is also Head of Web Archive Switzerland. Web Archive Switzerland is a collection of websites with a bearing on Switzerland and the Swiss people. Prior to becoming Head of the Department e-Helvetica, Barbara has been a project manager for many years, working on a wide variety of projects to build the collection of born-digital publications. She has also been involved in the technical projects to develop the long-term archiving system based on the OAIS model. Before her work in digital preservation, Barbara worked in the Cataloguing and National Bibliography Department of the Swiss National Library.
Tom J. Smyth is the Manager of the Web and Social Media Preservation Program at the National Library and Archives Canada. Tom’s work has involved digital library and archival portfolio and program management, technical and business capacity building, and managing special collections in digital curation contexts. He has led LAC’s web archiving initiatives since 2009. Tom currently serves on the Steering Committees for IIPC and the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Web Archiving and Preservation Working Group.
Laura Wrubel is a software developer on the Engineering & Design Team at Stanford University Libraries, where she supports the Libraries’ digital repository and web archiving infrastructure.