WR&C has contributed the first in a new series of Technology Watch Guidance Notes from the Digital Preservation Coalition, entitled How researchers use the archived Web.  We were very pleased to be commissioned to write this short note on the current state of the art.

In a context of both novelty and diversity, the Guidance Note is designed to orient DPC member organisations, and others engaged in Web archiving (or intending to be), as to the kinds of uses researchers might expect to make of the content they collect. It is hoped that it may support the development of programmes of user research and engagement, and (in turn) inform collection development policies and the design of discovery and access services.

It deals briefly with two questions: what in the archived Web are scholars studying, and how are they studying it?

It is now freely available at the DPC’s Knowledge Base.

Read more about WR&C’s research services.