Towards a national web archive in a federated country

Abstract

Despite its long history, the Belgian web is currently not systematically archived. Without a Belgian web archive there is a significant risk that essential born digital resources for historians will be lost forever. This chapter traces the history of the web in Belgium, from the establishment of the. be domain in 1988 to the present day, situating it within the Belgian historical, political, and legal context. PROMISE, a research project, which investigates the feasibility of developing a sustainable web archiving service for Belgium, is introduced. The results of two web archive pilots are presented and the importance of research use of the future Belgian web archive is stressed.