WIREDGOV

The National Archives is working with local authorities to pilot a web archiving model which will ensure important online information is preserved for future generations.

Currently, The National Archives works in partnership with the Internet Memory Foundation (IMF) to archive central government websites but its remit does not extend to cover all the local government or community websites.

The pilot will run in seven local authority archives - covering more than 20 local authorities - where staff will be trained in how to develop a curated web archive for their area and will be provided with free support from The National Archives and the IMF for the duration of the pilot.

Empowering local authorities

Oliver Morley, Chief Executive and Keeper, The National Archives, said: 'We are working to share the expertise we have built up in archiving government websites with local archive services up and down the country, empowering them to create web archives of their own which will provide a digital history of their communities'.

The pilot will help create a template for procuring web archiving services and guidance on best practice to help archive services across the country.

In parallel with this work, The National Archives is conducting an automated web crawl of local authority and NHS sites in the next two years to capture a wide variety of locally-held information, including datasets which are not currently preserved by data.gov.uk.

Read more in our press release.