UC San Diego Library

The UC San Diego Library has been collecting and providing access to archived web content since 2007. Initial collections were created on an ad hoc basis, with no highlevel plan to identify websites and content of interest, and there was little documentation of how early collection decisions were made. As time passed, the library’s web archiving efforts increased in scale, and outgrew this informal approach. Efforts were made to standardise web archiving processes and policies via collection request forms and standardised metadata, eventually culminating in the creation of a web archive collection development policy, and collection and quality control workflows and tracking. This article outlines the process of creating these tools, including establishing institutional needs and concerns, evaluating the wider landscape of web archiving policies and norms, and considering sustainable use of available resources. The article also discusses future areas of work to ensure that web content of research and historical interest is captured in full, preserved responsibly, and made accessible even when the original websites have changed or disappeared.