Your Students Can Archive the Internet — Apply Now

Beginning with a pilot program in 2008, the K-12 Web Archiving Program has engaged hundreds of middle and high school students from schools around the United States in selecting, describing, and preserving Web content. Through September 16, the program is accepting applications for new and returning partners from middle and high schools.

Participating in saving history and culture offers those students a unique perspective on how history is recorded. At the end of the program year, students consistently report an increased awareness and understanding of how what they select and preserve will be primary sources for future historians.

While schools organize participation in many ways — through the library, as part of a class, as an extra-curricular club — the teachers and school librarians who facilitate the programs reliably find that students develop critical thinking skills, learn to work collaboratively, and deepen their understanding of historical thinking strategies, including reading primary sources in context, and recognizing inherent perspective and bias. Read additional responses from students and teachers who participated in the 2014-15 program year in: The K-12 Web Archiving Program: Preserving the Web from a Youthful Point of View.