IIPC Web Archiving Conference 2026

The annual web archiving conference organized by the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) was held at KBR in Brussels on April 21–22, 2026. This year’s conference focused on how web archiving can be developed and maintained in a more sustainable way. Several dimensions of sustainability were highlighted across the presentations:

• Technical sustainability: development and maintenance of tools, infrastructure, and efficient workflows.
• Environmental sustainability: reducing energy consumption and the carbon footprint of storage and processing.
• Social sustainability: accessibility, user orientation, and inclusive practices.
• Legal and ethical sustainability: privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, and AI regulation.
• Institutional sustainability: long-term support, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

The National Library of Norway was well represented, with participants from Digital Preservation, the Web Archive, section for Audiovisual Collections, as well as the section for Language Bank and DH Lab. The Web Archive is an active member of IIPC and contributed to both the planning and organization of the conference. Katherine Boss from the Web Archive presented the lightning talk “Environmentally-friendly digital preservation policies and infrastructure at the National Library of Norway " (co-authored with Kristin Laberg and Frode Steen). The presentation highlighted how the National Library works with energy-efficient digital preservation, including the use of MAID technology (hard drives that only spin when in use), resulting in approximately 60 % energy savings. It also covered the use of lossless file compression and the benefits of storing data in naturally cool mountain facilities.

In addition, the National Library presented three posters:

• Mapping duplicate images in a web archive using perceptual hashing – Marie Roald (Language Bank and DH Lab).
• WebData: Building a Research Infrastructure for the Norwegian Web Archive – Jon Carlstedt Tønnessen (Web Archive).
• Revisiting a statistical approach for measuring Solr query performance – Jørgen Johan Antonsen (Web Archive).

Taking part in the conference shows how valuable it is to be part of international professional communities. These meetings give good opportunities for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and network-building across institutions and countries. This also reinforces work on web archiving and digital preservation internally at the National Library and across the country.