Capturing And Replaying Streaming Media In A Web Archive - A British Library Case Study

A prerequisite for digital preservation is to be able to capture and retain the content which is considered worth preserving. This has been a significant challenge for web archiving, especially for websites with embedded streaming media content, which cannot be copied via a simple HTTP request to a URL. This paper describes the approach taken by the British Library in capturing and replaying streaming media in a web archive. A working system is now in place which will lead to the development of more generic tools and workflows, contributing to addressing a common challenge for the web archiving community. The British Library recently archived a large scale public arts project website, http://www.oneandother.co.uk, which contains 2,400 hours of flash videos, streamed over Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). The case study also presents an overview of the nontechnical issues relevant to archiving this high-profile website.