Archiving problems of websites

Abstract

The article is a written version of the section on general web archiving problems complementing the presentation of Ádám Perger at the 2021 conference “404 Not Found – Who preserves the Internet?”, in which the authors present typical problems they have encountered frequently during the five years of operation of the Web Archive of the National Széchényi Library. Some of these can be solved by the parametrisation the archiving tool or using alternative technology, while others require the involvement of the content provider. The aim of the paper is to raise awareness on how to make websites robot- and archive-friendly, similar to the way optimisation is done for accessibility. The article is based partly on the experiences of the Web Archive of the National Széchényi Library and the MIA Wiki knowledge base, and partly on examples collected in the course material for the accredited course of the Library Institute entitled “Internet archiving as a public library task”.