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Archive-It is a web-archiving service, built at the Internet Archive, that lets an organization create and publish its own curated web archives. This page is for librarians, archivists, researchers and administrators who need to know what Archive-It is, how its public collections are organized, and what to record when citing material found there. Facts below come from the Archive-It website pages named under Sources, read on 2026-11-08.
What Archive-It is
Archive-It describes itself as a user-controlled, web-based service for creating curated, publicly accessible web archives. The word “user-controlled” matters: each collecting organization decides which sites belong in its collections, so an Archive-It collection reflects one organization’s selection rather than a general sweep of the web. For that reason it is useful for preserving specific material, such as an institution’s own web presence, a topic collection or a record of a time-limited event, and it is also a reason to treat any single collection as one curator’s selection rather than a complete record. This matters for the problem described in link rot in citations, where web pages that a reference depends on disappear or change.
Who runs it and what it covers
The site states that Archive-It is built at Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose stated mission is “Universal Access to All Knowledge”. The organizations that collect with it are described as universities, libraries, archives, governments and nonprofits. As of the site’s own statements, read 2026-11-08:
- over 10,000 curated web archive collections;
- over 1,200 partner organizations;
- more than 45 countries.
The collection browser listed 1,435 collecting organizations on the same date, including 524 colleges and universities, 229 public libraries and local governments, 138 NGOs, 95 national institutions, 73 museums and art libraries, 45 state archives and libraries, 41 K-12 program schools and 17 law libraries (216 are classed as other institutions). These counts change as partners join, so quote them with the date.
How to browse the public collections
The collection browser is titled “Explore All Archives” and is reached from the “Collections” link in the site header (the address is archive-it.org/explore/). The sign-in link (“Log in”) for partner organizations sits in the same header and leads to partner.archive-it.org; it is for partner organizations.
- Open the Collections link in the header to reach “Explore All Archives”.
- Choose a search scope with the tabs: Collecting Organizations, Collections, Sites or Full Text.
- Use the “Narrow Your Results” panel and its “Type of Collecting Organization” filter, for example Colleges & Universities or State Archives & Libraries. Filter options can be ordered by count or A-Z.
- Order the results by Name (A-Z) or Name (Z-A) and page through them.
- Open an organization entry. Each shows the organization name, an “Archive-It Partner Since” date, the organization type and, when the partner supplied them, a URL and a description.
Which tab to start with depends on the question. Use Collecting Organizations when you know who would have archived the material (a state archive, a university library). Use Collections or Sites when you know the subject or the web address. Use Full Text when you are looking for words inside archived pages.
Citing material from an Archive-It collection
This is an editorial recommendation rather than an Archive-It rule: because an archived page is a capture made by a particular organization at a particular time, record the collecting organization, the collection name, the original web address, the capture date and the date you viewed it. That lets a reader tell the archived copy from the live page, which may have changed or gone. Your own citation style may require a different order or fewer elements; follow it where it speaks to archived web pages.
Strengths and limits
| Point | What the Archive-It site supports |
|---|---|
| Selection by the collecting organization | The service is described as user-controlled, so each partner curates its own collections. |
| Public access | The service is for creating “publicly accessible web archives”, which are listed on the Collections page. |
| Wide partner base | The site states more than 1,200 organizations in more than 45 countries. |
| Coverage depends on the partner | A site appears only if some partner chose to collect it; absence from Archive-It says nothing about whether the page ever existed. |
| Partner sign-in | Partners sign in through partner.archive-it.org; this page does not cover pricing or terms. |
Related Archive-It services
The Archive-It home page lists two other services alongside the web-archiving product:
| Service | Described on the Archive-It site as |
|---|---|
| ARCH | A research and data-processing service for building, analyzing and studying large digital collections computationally, including creating datasets and visualizations. |
| Vault | A low-cost, easy-to-use digital repository and preservation service for storing, managing and preserving digital files and collections. |
For other approaches to keeping research outputs available, see CASRAI’s guides on institutional repositories, data rescue and preservation initiatives, versioning research datasets and Common Crawl. These are separate topics, not substitutes judged here. The wider publishing hub lists related guides.
FAQ
What is Archive-It?
A user-controlled, web-based service, built at the Internet Archive, for creating curated, publicly accessible web archives.
Who uses Archive-It?
The site describes its partners as universities, libraries, archives, governments and nonprofits, and states over 1,200 organizations in more than 45 countries (read 2026-11-08).
Can I browse Archive-It collections without signing in?
The Explore All Archives page, reached from the Collections link in the header, lists partner organizations and their collections. The Log in link goes to partner.archive-it.org.
What are ARCH and Vault?
ARCH is described as a service for computational research on large digital collections; Vault is described as a digital repository and preservation service.
Is every website in Archive-It?
No. Collections are curated by partner organizations, so only sites a partner chose to collect appear.
Sources
- Archive-It home page, https://archive-it.org/ (read 2026-11-08).
- Archive-It, Explore All Archives, https://archive-it.org/explore/ (read 2026-11-08).
