Build your minimal archive website

Web Archiving is the process of preserving websites in an archive. By capturing screenshots at specific moments, the data of each web page is retained. These screen captures preserve the original context, containing both content and appearance.

Identify the digital materials you want to keep over the long term. Make a list of the types of digital files you want to keep. At first, focus your preservation efforts on small collections of the most important files in specific areas, such as travel photos or research papers.

You should take any specific courses in archival methods that are available to you as an undergraduate. Since many employers prefer to hire archivists with a graduate degree, consider any course load that may help you gain entrance into a program to earn a masterʼs degree in library and information science or history.

The main activities to consider when preparing to archive your own digital files are: Identify which files are most important to you and your family. Organize the files in a way which makes sense to you but is also intuitive to someone else. Make copies of your files and store them in different geographic locations.

Archives should be established in a secure safe environment. Set aside adequate space to house materials, obtain shelving and cabinets, and set up work tables, computer stations, media playback equipment, and other things needed to create both storage space and work space for processing collections.

Monetizing an archival collection involves electronically transforming the collection in a way that allows people to access it online for a fee. You use the digital collection to provide revenue to your organization, so the project helps pay for itself while allowing users to access what they need from the archives.

There are several ways to archive a website. A single webpage can simply be saved to your hard drive, free online archive tools such as HTTrack and the Wayback Machine can be used, or you can depend on a CMS backup. But the best way to capture a site is to use an automated archiving solution that captures every change.

the Wayback Machine Chrome extension in your browser. Go to a page you want to archive, click the icon in your toolbar, and select Save Page Now. We will save the page and give you a permanent URL.