Information Access Seminar

Why “Web Archiving” Is No Longer a Useful Concept or Phrase

Friday, August 27, 2021
3:10 pm to 5:00 pm PDT
Online

Clifford Lynch

The Worldwide Web turned 30 years old earlier this month. While the Internet Archive and various national libraries around the world have done fantastic work in capturing and preserving the early web, the nature of the web has changed drastically over the past three decades. I will discuss the nature of some of these changes, and argue that a conceptual model that centers “web archiving” has long outlived its usefulness, and is now actively unhelpful. I’ll examine some of the conceptual and technical challenges implicit in attempts to preserve material accessible thorough the today’s web, and some of the choices that memory organizations will need to make in addressing this environment.

Join the seminar

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Clifford Lynch is the director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and an adjunct professor at the School of Information. Prior to joining CNI in 1997, Lynch spent eighteen years at the University of California Office of the President, the last ten as director of Library Automation. Lynch is a past president of ASIS&T and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Information Standards Organization.

Clifford Lynch
Clifford Lynch (photo courtesy University of Texas Libraries)

Contact

If you have questions about this event, please contact Michael Buckland.

Profile profile for buckland

Michael Buckland
Michael Buckland
Professor Emeritus
buckland@ischool.berkeley.edu

Last updated:

August 24, 2021