Archiving the Black Web: Documenting and Preserving the Black Experience Online

Archiving the Black Web (ATBW) is conducting a survey of Black collecting institutions and Black memory workers to better understand web archiving practices and the current state of web archive collections. In our current efforts to provide web archive training to archivists and memory workers documenting Black experiences, to support the development of web archiving programs at Black collecting institutions, and to grow the number of Black web archive collections available for research, community activation, and other forms of engagement, this survey will help us to better understand the experiences, needs, and gaps in the preservation, study of, and engagement with content documenting the Black experience online.

We would like to know about the experiences of those who labor to document Black life and history as it relates to web archiving — even including those who have no experience with web archiving. This survey will ask you about you or your organization’s web archiving collections and practices, interest in web archiving, knowledge of web archiving tools, and you or your organization’s interest in participating in a web archiving training program centering the Black experience online.

This survey should take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Thank you for your feedback!

This study will contribute to research about web archiving activities across Black collecting institutions and amongst Black memory workers, access to and the impact of web archiving training programs, and the experiences, needs, and gaps in the preservation, study of, and engagement with content documenting the Black experience online. Our interview might be a space for you to discuss important topics that impact you, your organization, and the field broadly. You can choose to skip questions that you prefer not to answer. You may choose to withdraw your participation at any time.

We are not collecting identifying information in this survey, but be mindful that any information you provide about your work or collections may be unique and therefore identifiable. The results of the survey, however, will not be connected directly to you or your organization in any way.

This survey is being conducted by Archiving the Black Web independently of our funders. The information shared in this survey will not impact any current or future applications for funding or programming offered by Archiving the Black Web or our funders.

If at any time you have questions regarding the research or your participation, please contact the Archiving the Black Web Team. Our email address is warcschool@gmail.com. You may also contact any member of the research staff if you have any concerns or complaints about the research.