Descriptive Metadata for Web Archiving

The RLP Web Archiving Metadata Working Group working with Jackie Dooley, RLP Program Officer, has written three publications focused on descriptive metadata for web archiving.

The work arose in part from two recent surveys—one of end users of archived web content and the other of web archiving practitioners—both of which showed that lack of a common approach to creating metadata was the most widely shared challenge across the web archiving community.

In response, OCLC Research established the Web Archiving Metadata Working Group to develop recommendations for descriptive metadata. Their approach is tailored to the unique characteristics of archived websites, with an eye to helping institutions improve the consistency and efficiency of their metadata practices in this emerging area.

The working group recognized the importance of gaining a clear understanding of the needs of users of archived web content, and took this into account throughout the project. The work was done in consultation with the International Internet Preservation Consortium, the Society of American Archivists Web Archiving Section, and the Internet Archive's Archive-It program, and with much community input and feedback.

The result of this community collaboration is three new publications that cover recommendations to help institutions improve the consistency and efficiency of their metadata practices, a literature review of user needs, and a review of web harvesting tools.

• Descriptive Metadata for Web Archiving: Recommendations of the OCLC Research Library Partnership Web Archiving Metadata Working Group
• Descriptive Metadata of Web Archiving: Literature Review of User Needs
• Descriptive Metadata of Archiving: Review of Harvesting Tools

Short URL: oc.lc/wam-reports