Whether in areas such as politics, culture, sports or science, the web mirrors the contemporary world, – but it is also extremely volatile. About 80% of the pages change or disappear within a year. In this context, Arquivo.pt, a resource of the Foundation for Science and Technology, developed by its digital services unit FCCN, since 2007 -, plays an essential role in preserving digital information that would otherwise be lost.
Because of this role, and to respond to the growing demand for training in this area, Arquivo.pt now makes available, through another FCT service, NAU, the new online course program: “The Web of the Past: Preservation and Research”.
In addition to preserving the digital collective memory, Cybersecurity is another area where web archives can be advantageous tools, allowing you to recover previous versions of websites after cyber attacks.. "In extreme cases of attacks, it serves to relieve pressure on IT teams, who can use the Arquivo.pt Memorial service to keep the latest archived version of the website accessible," explains the Arquivo.pt team.
The provision of this training program on the NAU Platform comes as a response to the mission of both the NAU Platform and the FCCN, to promote digital literacy, qualification and advanced training, through accessible and quality technological solutions. "Every year, we receive many requests for training on Arquivo.pt, and the courses at NAU will help us meet that need.", adds the Arquivo.pt team.
The courses, in the format MOOC (Massive Open Online Course, in Portuguese, Massive Open Courses Online), were designed to be accessible to everyone, being especially relevant for audiences such as, web content creators and managers, communications offices, IT technicians and researchers. “There are services and ways to use Arquivo.pt that will surprise even experts,” the team assures.
In terms of content, the program covers everything from the fundamentals of digital preservation until practical techniques for archiving and researching online content. It is intended, therefore, “maximize user productivity in exploring the services provided by Arquivo.pt, as well as raising awareness of the importance of preserving digital heritage published online”. There is also a strong focus on reuse of archived content, promoting a more creative and informed use of digital information.
The program “The Web of the Past: Preservation and Research” includes four courses, common estimated effort of 4 hours each, to be carried out at the participant's pace. The training sessions are completely free and include NAU certificate after completion. The registrations are open until April 2026.
THE NAU Platform is co-financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), reinforcing FCCN's commitment to digital training and innovation in teaching online in Portugal.
