The Web Archiving Survey Working Group is excited to announce the publication of the results of the 2022 Web Archiving Survey. The 2022 survey builds upon surveys previously conducted in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 — and though previous surveys were focused on the United States, the 2022 survey was open to international audiences as well. The 26-question survey was completed by 190 respondents over a 10-day period. This report details the outcomes of the web archiving survey that was distributed to various local, national, and international professional organizations and topical groups in October 2022. Topics discussed included archiving policies, tools and services, and access and discovery.
Some major takeaways from the report include:
- Most respondents indicated that “staff capacity” was the biggest barrier to web archiving. Few organizations dedicate more than one, full-time employee to web archiving and very rarely is someone’s entire position dedicated to web archiving.
- Since the first Web Archiving Survey in 2011, the landscape of web archiving has dramatically changed, and the 2022 survey results show an increase in web archiving practices by grassroots organizations, volunteer groups, and non-academic communities who seek to document their lived experiences.
- An overwhelming majority of respondents indicated concerns about their ability to collect social media—in particular, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit. Content housed within social networks has always been difficult to capture for a myriad of reasons and recent changes to numerous social platforms have made this task harder.
Thank you to all NDSA members and others who participated in the survey. We appreciate your time and effort spent in providing the information to us.
Thank you to the members of the Web Archiving Survey Working Group who worked over the last year and half to make the report possible.