Notes for webmasters

Linking to an archived website

The National Archives currently collect websites using two methods. The main collection is harvested using the services of the European Archive. A smaller selection is also harvested via the UK Web Archiving Consortium. This means that there are currently two sources for linking to archived websites.
Websites in the main collection (archived by European Archive)

Websites in the main collection (archived by the European Archive)

It is possible to provide links to either specific, dated snapshots of a website in the collection, or an index of all available snapshots of a website.

The href for linking to a specific snapshot of a website in the main European Archive collection should take the form: "http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20030812004849/http://www.mod.uk " This will link directly to the snapshot of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) website collected on 12 August 2003. These specific link references can be obtained from our index pages as detailed below.

The href for linking to the index of all available snapshots of a website takes the same form, but uses a wildcard for the date specification. The layout of the index page is automatically adjusted in accordance with the date range specified. For example, the URL " http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/*/http://www.mod.uk " will link to an index page showing all available snapshots of the MoD website collected since January 1997.

Websites in the UK Web Archiving Consortium collection (UKWAC)

The href for linking to a specific snapshot of a website in the UKWAC collection takes a different form.

"http://www.webarchive.org.uk/pan/PI/ YYYYMMDD" + / + the URL of the website. (PI is the Persistent Identifier, a 5-digit PANDAS number for title records.) For example: "http://www.webarchive.org.uk/pan/10558/20050223/www.edemocracy.gov.uk/index.html" will link directly to the snapshot of the e-Democracy website from 23 February 2005

To link to an index for all available snapshots of a website, links should take the form "http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/PI.html" (PI is the Persistent Identifier, a 5-digit PANDAS number for title records.) For example: " http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/10558.html" will link to an index page showing all available snapshots of the e-Democracy website collected since January 2005.

Early archived websites were collected using experimental technology. The archiving software often collected the top-level pages of a website only, usually without images. This can mean that older archived websites in the collection do not display as expected, and have basic functionality.

The "Archived by The National Archives" logo

The National Archives encourages government webmasters to provide a link from their website to the relevant index of archived snapshots. To facilitate this, we provide two "Archived by The National Archives" logos which may be placed on a website to indicate that it is being collected as part of the web archive.

To ensure legibility, these logos should not be reproduced at a smaller size. To download a logo, simply right-click on the relevant image and click "Save Picture As...". These logos should then be linked to the relevant archive index page by setting the image the correct link for the archived site.

Logo 1: 120 x 90 (preferred)

Logo 2: 120 x 60

Firewall issues

Departmental security policies may require that firewalls be configured to block access to 'archive' websites, including the European Archive and UK Web Archiving Consortium. This may prevent staff from accessing the collection.

The http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/ URL only provides access to The National Archives web archive of UK government websites. Access to the collection through a firewall will minimally require the following URL and below to be opened up:

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/

The UK Web Archiving Consortium collects websites selected by the consortium partners only. Access to the collection through a firewall will minimally require the following URL and below to be opened up:

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/

Feedback

We undertake quality assurance testing on all archived websites in the collection, though problems may develop over time. We therefore particularly welcome feedback from departmental webmasters on any issues relating to particular sites. If you wish to notify us of any issues, or have any comments on the web archive in general, please email us webarchive@nationalarchives.gov.uk .