Sustaining Open-Source Web Archiving Infrastructure: Takeaways from IIPC Conference 2026

Harvard University's Lil blog post about the International Internet Preservation Consortium's (IIPC) Web Archiving Conference 2026 highlights the importance of collective stewardship in web archiving. The conference, held at the KBR—Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, discussed the challenges and opportunities in preserving the internet's collective memory. This development means that website owners must be aware of the role they play in web archiving and the potential impact of their content on the internet's historical record. As web archiving efforts continue to grow, website owners may see an increase in bot traffic from archiving initiatives, which could affect their site's performance and analytics. Furthermore, website owners may need to consider how their content policies and llms.txt files will interact with web archiving bots, ensuring that their site's content is properly preserved and accessible. To prepare for these changes, website owners can take several steps: (1) review their llms.txt files to ensure that web archiving bots are allowed to crawl and preserve their site's content, (2) monitor their site's bot traffic to identify and accommodate archiving initiatives, and (3) consider implementing content policies that balance their site's needs with the goals of web archiving efforts, such as providing clear guidelines for bots and archivists.