World Sustainable Development Web Archive: Preserving and disseminating knowledge for sustainable growth

Abstract

The grey literature produced by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) is considered to be some of the most ephemeral material available on the Internet. NGOs often operate on tight budgets and in opposition to governmental initiatives, a combination that makes their web presence particularly transient. In response to the ephemeral nature of NGO materials on the internet, the International and Area Studies Library of the University of Illinois initiated the World Sustainable Development Web Archive project to preserve web content published by NGOs that focus on environmental and economic sustainability. To ensure broad coverage of these movements, the archive actively collects materials in multiple languages and cultural groups. This paper describes the use of shared web archiving platforms to initiate and sustain web archiving activities that support scholars and enable small organizations to archive and preserve their historical content and discusses the challenges that have been encountered both with the technology and within a changing political landscape.