Archiving the Web, the Padicat project (Digital Heritage of Catalonia)

Since 1996 numerous countries have set into motion strategies for guaranteeing permanent access to their digital production: web pages and other digital resources published on the internet. The purpose of these strategies is to assure that the traditional documentary cycle can be adapted, to the extent that current technology permits, to web pages; allowing for the selection, processing, conservation and permanent availability of these digital resources. National libraries have often led these initiatives and, within Spain, the Biblioteca de Catalunya (BC) has initiated the Padicat project (Digital Heritage of Catalonia), devoted to archiving the contents of the Catalonian Web. This article describes the Padicat project.