Between 2023 and 2024, staff at the University Archives in the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Kentucky Libraries (Lexington, USA) reviewed the sustainability of their web archiving program. Preserving the institution’s extensive digital presence is a technologically demanding task that requires ongoing specialized expertise and is underfunded. However, it is absolutely essential: if university archives do not determine how to sustainably acquire, preserve, and provide access to online records, significant gaps in understanding the university’s actions, events, and decisions will — and already have — occurred.
We used the nine-dimension framework for organizational sustainability of digital cultural heritage by Kristin R. Eschenfelder et al. (2019) and the Socio-Technical Sustainability Roadmap (STSR). At the conclusion of our review (presented at the 2024 International Internet Preservation Consortium conference), we identified four key issues and potential solutions for organizing and maintaining people, resources, and workflows to keep web archiving functional and accessible over time, in the face of current and future challenges.
One of the issues was the complexity and constant change of the university’s main domain, uky.edu. Two proposed solutions were building relationships with record creators and developing automated processes—both with the potential to reduce staff effort and make effective use of limited resources. We are advancing these solutions through ongoing collaborations with the university’s Public Relations and Marketing team.
In this presentation, two archivists and the university’s digital content strategist will discuss our Digital Communications Working Group; the initiatives and processes developed so far; and our realization that creating a better preservation process for the university’s permanent records is a two-way street—enabling record creators and communications specialists to better adhere to accessibility and governance policies, while also informing structural changes to the institutional web platform. Through collaboration, we can enhance preservation while minimizing disruption to current content workflows.