Webarchiv preserves Czech web


For basic informations about Webarchiv visit our introduction


FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

General information

Why does the National Library of the Czech republic archive web?

The amount of documents published on the Internet is growing dramatically – many of them are often changing and others are even being lost. If the documents that have a research value are not archived a considerable part of the national cultural heritage would disappear forever. The responsibility for archiving online-born documents and their registration in the national bibliography is usually assumed by national libraries and/or other deposit libraries.

Which web pages do you archive?

We archive Czech sources, which means pages published in the Czech Republic, written by authors originally from the Czech Republic or in the Czech language and sources whose content deals with the Czech Republic.

What is the archived version of a web page?

Archived version of a web page preserves the original page, as encountered during a harvest. The page is then stored in our archive. Under some circumstances, archived pages may be made public to our users.

How big is the Czech web archive?

We store hundreds of terabytes of data at the moment and this number is increasing. First web page was archived in September 2001.

What is the Wayback Machine?

Wayback Machine is a web application built for accessing web archives. Wayback Machine was originally developed by Internet Archive and we use it for our archive too.

Can I cite a web page from the archive?

Yes, you can! URLs in our archive are permanent, so you can cite the archived webpage as you would do with a normal webpage.

How can I search in the Czech web archive?

If you know the website you are looking for, you can use a search box on our website. You can search by URL address or keyword (name, topic etc.). You can also browse archive by subject categories. It is possible to find our bibliographic records in the library catalogue.

Is there any difference in searching on our web or in the wayback machine?

You can search by URL address both ways. On our website you can also search by keywords.

Why is the website I'm looking for absent?

We are trying to archive the Czech web completely, if you are missing some website, you can nominate it for archiving.

Access to archive

Why are some archived websites incomplete or displayed strangely?

Web archiving tools used by the Czech web archive have technical limitations and are currently unable to capture every component from the website. This can cause websites to display strangely, or incompletely.

Why are some archived websites blocked?

According to Czech copyright law online access to archived websites is based on agreement with the website owner or on Creative Commons licence. Websites without this agreement are blocked from our online archive and they are accessible only from the library terminals.

Harvesting

How can I suggest a website for archiving?

You are welcome to nominate a website for archiving, just fill in the form.

Why is my web page in the Czech web archive and how can I remove it from the archive?

One of Czech national library goals is to preserve Czech cultural heritage. We are building the collection of Czech websites - the cultural heritage of born-online documents. Since 2006 the Czech national library has begun to archive the whole of the CZ web domain. If you want to exclude your website from archive, please email us at webarchiv[@]nkp.cz.

How can I protect my privacy?

The Czech web archive can only collect and archive pages that are publicly available, the same one that you might find as you surf around the web. We do not collect pages that require a password to access or pages that are only accessible when a person types into and sends a form (for ex. search box).

If you think that there has been a violation of your privacy from our side, please contact us webarchiv[@]nkp.cz

Do you archive emails, chats or any other personal information?

No, we do not collect or archive chat systems or personal email messages. We collect pages that are publicly available, the same ones that you might find as you surf around the web.

Can I get a copy of my website from the archive if my site got hacked or damaged?

Unfortunately we don't cover backups for the general public. However, you may use the archive to locate and access archived versions of your site, but we can't guarantee that your site has been or will be archived.

Do you respect robots.txt standard?

No, we do not respect robots.txt, because we want to capture the web pages as they are viewed by the user.