The NRS Web Archive selects, captures and preserves websites of organisations who deposit records with NRS.
We make these captures accessible in the NRS Web Archive. You can find a list of archived websites in the NRS Web Archive A-Z
Public authority websites are part of Scotland’s public record . This means it is important that NRS captures and preserves a representative record of these.
The NRS Web Archive is run by the NRS Web Continuity Service.
The web archive is Memento compliant.
Finding information in the NRS Web Archive
You can find information in the web archive using:
- A-Z list
- direct URLs
- advanced search
Guidance for website owners
This service is only available for organisations that deposit their records with NRS for permanent preservation. This includes websites owned by the Scottish Government. Please contact us if you’re unsure if you are eligible.
If you have a website which you would like archived, please contact us.
If we decide the website should be added to the NRS Web Archive, we will ask you to fill out a questionnaire.
For further information see our Selection Policy.
The archiving process
The website is archived using web crawlers.
We usually archive websites once or twice a year. However, we will confirm the frequency and timings with you.
NRS quality assures the resulting captures. We do this by checking the captures to make sure they are representative of the live site.
We then:
- publish the captures in the NRS Web Archive
- provide the website owner with feedback on quality assurance findings
- provide a link to archived captures
Technical information on making websites easy to archive
Guidance on web archiving is provided in the Digital Scotland Service Manual.
We have also listed technical limitations later in this guidance.
Linking to archived content
Web archiving enables users to find content even if it has been removed or updated from a live website. You can do this by linking from the website to an archived URL.
Guidance on managing content is provided in the Digital Scotland Service Manual.
If a website is closing down, you can also put a redirect on the domain to an archived capture. If you chose to do this, it is important to remember to retain ownership of that domain.
Takedown
If there is content which you do not think should be publicly accessible in the web archive, please contact us so we can take it down. Please provide the URL link and a reason for the request.
Using the web archive
URLS in the archive
URLs in the NRS Web Archive start with https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/. This is followed by a date stamp n YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format. The date stamp shows when the capture was archived.
For example, https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20180104020408/http://www.gov.scot/ is a capture of www.gov.scot which was archived by NRS on 02:04:08 Jan 4, 2018.
Each archived page has a banner to inform users that they are viewing an archived page. It also provides the date that page was archived.
When you are using the web archive, it is important to keep an eye on this date as pages may have been archived at different times.
Technical Limitations
Not all content on an archived website will be captured or displayed properly.
Below is a list of the main issues:
- Interactive Content. This is any content which requires a user’s input. It includes search functionality.
- Links inside documents (such as PDF, MS Word or Excel)
- Content which requires a login
- Flash content
- Embedded content, including maps and social media such as YouTube videos
- POST and Ajax functionality
Copyright
Ownership and copyright of websites in the NRS Web Archive remain the responsibility of website owners. The website may also be subject to publicity rights, privacy rights, or other legal interests.
If a user wishes to use or cite any content from the NRS Web Archive for reproduction, distribution, or other use, they should adhere to the terms and conditions as detailed within the archived website. In addition, they should include reference to the NRS Web Archive in their citations as follows: “Archived in the NRS Web Archive at https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/”.
