My new Technology Watch Guidance Note is now available, entitled How researchers use the archived Web. I was delighted to be commissioned (through Webster Research and Consulting) to write this short note on the current state of the art for the good folk at the Digital Preservation Coalition.

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  freely available from the DPC’s Knowledge Base (PDF)

Read more details of Webster Research and Consulting’s research services.