Web Archiving

Like other materials subject to legal deposit, web content have value for future generations. Continuous changes in both form and content result in large amounts of material appearing and disappearing rapidly. This is a consequence of the dynamic nature of both the web and the internet. 

Webpages are composed of various files, including text, images, and link structures. All these elements are necessary to recreate the entire context of a webpage. The goal is to preserve the original form and structure of the website as it appeared at the time of harvesting, without any form of editing.

The National Library has regularly harvested selected websites since the turn of the Millenium. Websites registered under foreign domains are also harvested if they have rights holders in Norway, are in the Norwegian language, or are otherwise deemed to have relevance to the Norwegian cultural heritage. 

The harvested material can be viewed as a copy of the website, but there are no guarantees that the entire website will be included in a harvest. The Web Archive does not harvest at the document level but aims to capture as much content as possible. 

Websites that are not restricted by user login are initially defined as accessible to everyone and should be preserved for the future. The Legal Deposit Act also defines that certain websites may be subject to legal deposit even if they require user login (such as paywalls for news articles from online newspapers). 

Public websites are covered by both the Legal Deposit Act and the Archives Act (Arkivloven). In this guide, you can see the division of responsibilities between the National Library of Norway and the National Archives (Arkivverket). 

As of today, the web archive at the National Library has a three-part strategy to harvesting: 

Domain Harvesting

The entire .no and material from other top-level domains, such as .org, .com, and .net, are harvested at regular intervals.

Selective Harvesting

Selected websites related to Norwegian culture and society are harvested at shorter intervals. Websites in this harvesting include: 

• Online newspapers 
• Government websites at the national, regional, and municipal levels 
• Representative selection of Norwegian companies in various industries, with emphasis on those of economic interest 
• Universities and selected colleges (scientific colleges and selected colleges by geography and field) 
• Websites from selected organizations and individuals to document the diversity of Norwegian culture and society 
• Music and audiovisual content 
• Sami-related websites 
• Websites for and by minority groups 
• Library-relevant websites 
• Consumer/experience-related websites

Event Harvesting

Selected websites are harvested at shorter intervals in connection with major national events, such as: 

• Cultural and sports events at the national and international levels 
• Author anniversaries and other national anniversaries 
• Crisis situations 
• Current political issues 
• Parliamentary and Sami parliamentary elections, municipal and county council elections

The websites are stored on our secure servers. The availability of websites in our playback engine is done in accordance with the current legislation or according to individual publishing agreements made by each website owner. 

By default, the material will be made available for research and documentation under specific conditions. In the future, parts of the collection will become accessible to the public. Initially, this will involve public websites. Read more about this here.