Web Archiving in the United States: A 2016 Survey Page: 4

                                
WEB ARCHIVING IN THE UNITED STATES: A 2016 SURVEY

INTRODUCTION
From January 20 to February 16, 2016, a team of individuals representing multiple NDSA
member institutions and interest groups conducted a survey of organizations in the United
States actively involved in, or planning to start, programs to archive content from the Web.
This effort built upon a similar survey undertaken by NDSA in late 2011 and published
online in June 20121 and a second survey in late 2013 published online in September 2014.2
The goal of these surveys is to better understand the landscape of Web archiving activities
in the United States by investigating the organizations involved, the history and scope of
their Web archiving programs, the types of Web content being preserved, the tools and
services being used, access and discovery services being provided, and overall policies
related to Web archiving programs. While this survey documents the current state of US
Web archiving initiatives, comparison with the results of the 2011 and 2013 surveys
enables an analysis of emerging trends. This report therefore describes the current state of
the field, tracks the evolution of the field over the last few years, and points to future
opportunities and developments.
METHODOLOGY
The survey team self-organized into a working group in late 2015 to begin drafting the
survey questions. Two goals were identified early in the process: to enable historical
comparisons with the 2011 and 2013 surveys and to inquire about additional program
details that were not previously included. Accordingly, the group reviewed and refined the
questions from the previous surveys and added new questions to address emerging
activities and issues. The updated survey was conducted from January 20 to February 16,
2016, using the SurveyMonkey online survey tool, and was promoted via blogs, mailing
lists, social media, and other channels. When the survey concluded, the group reviewed the
responses and removed test or mostly incomplete entries. Respondents were not required
to answer every question. The percentages reported for individual questions reflect the
total number of responses to that question, rather than the total number of respondents
participating in the survey.
The Survey Content
The 2016 NDSA Web Archiving Survey consisted of 31 questions organized around five
distinct topic areas: background information about the respondent's organization; details
regarding the current state of their Web archiving program; tools and services used by
1"Web Archiving Survey Report," NDSA Report, June 19, 2012, accessed December 16, 2016,
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/documents/ndsa web archiving survey report 2012.pdf.
2 "Web Archiving in the United States: A 2013 Survey," NDSA Report, September 2014, accessed December
16,2016, http://ndsa.org/documents/NDSA USWebArchivingSurvey 2013.pdf.

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