ACCESSING WEB ARCHIVES
There are two collections of archived websites available via Explore the British Library: · The Legal Deposit UK Web Archive, archived through legal deposit regulations introduced in 2013 · The Open UK Web Archive, archived and made accessible by permission of the owner Access to the two collections is not the same: · Websites obtained via legal deposit can only be accessed in the Library via a reading room PC. Sites concerned with 2013 NHS reform are the first from this collection to be made available. More content will be added via the annual archiving of sites within the UK domain. · Websites in the Open UK Web Archive can be accessed from anywhere. The archive is hosted on http://www.webarchive.org.uk/. Note: This means that you may see two records for the same website, each with different access rights. Searching for archived websites Accessing the content Accessing Legal Deposit UK Web Archive content Using Legal Deposit UK Web Archive content Accessing Open UK Web Archive ContentSearching for archived websites
You can search for websites within both collections via Explore the British Library. You can either do a simple search, using Refine to display Archived Websites:If your search is quite general, for example: you are likely to retrieve records from both the Legal Deposit UK Web Archive and the Open UK Web Archvie.
Accessing the content
The entries in your results list show you where you can view each website. Legal Deposit UK Web Archive content is indicated by the phrase Available only in our Reading Rooms in the brief display: These websites can only be accessed via a reading room PC in the British Library. Open UK Web Archive content has the phrase Free access in the brief display:These websites are freely available both inside and outside the reading rooms. Accessing Legal Deposit UK Web Archive content Use the link in the I want this tab to access the archived website: Note: You will only see this link if you are using one of the Library’s PCs. If the item is legal deposit content, and you are not on one of the Library’s PCs, you will see the following message: To access the content on a Library PC, click on the Golink adjacent to Legal deposit content, and a new window will open:
Why does the legal deposit content open in a new window? A new window opens because the content is being accessed from another server; it is not being downloaded onto the PC you are using. This is known as a “remote desktop session.” This enables the Library to manage access in such a way as to conform to the regulations regarding this type of material. The regulations do not permit users to: · Copy and/or paste · Download · Save Legal deposit content. Printing is allowed, but only within the “fair dealing” limits: · 5% or an article from a journal · 5% or a chapter from a book. Note: The Library is monitoring all printing from this content. Infringement of the guidelines may lead to the suspension of your Reader Pass, and legal proceedings by the website owner. Using Legal Deposit UK Web Archive content Note: You must accept the guidelines presented on screen to access the content. Accept the guidelines, and when the download is complete (which may take a few seconds the first time you open a session), you will see the item on screen:
You should use the navigation on the original website to view the content, otherwise you may close down your session accidentally. Note: Some links on the pages you are viewing may not work, as they may be to external sites or pages not captured in the domain crawl. When you have finished looking at the content, close down the window by clicking on the X in the top right hand of the window. You will be asked to confirm that you want to close down the session: Click on Leave page to exit the session. You will then be returned to Explore the British Library where you can continue searching. Note: At the moment it is not possible to view more than one nonprint legal deposit item at a time. Note: The legislation stipulates that only one person at a time can view any piece of legal deposit content.
Once the other person has finished with the item and closed it down, you will be able to view it. There is no limit on the length of time a reader may consult this material. Note: It is not possible to reserve nonprint legal deposit content in advance of your visit to the Library. Accessing Open UK Web Archive content Use the link in the I want this tab to access the archived website: To access the content, click GO and a new window will open displaying the relevant page in the Open UK Web Archive:
You may see a number of instances, and these will tell you the dates on which the site has been archived. You can choose any of these instances to access the site, to see how it appeared on date of archiving. In addition, if the live site still exists, a link is provided on the page.
