Digital Archive

There are currently two main strands to the project: preservation of publications and audio-visual files on the Preservica platform complemented by website captures using the Archive-It platform.

The aim is to provide chartered accountants, policy makers and researchers with an extensive and fully searchable collection of public domain material.

The Library uses Preservica to hold archived publications, podcasts and webinars. The platform currently holds over 18,000 resources and continues to grow. You can access the platform at https://icaew.access.preservica.com

What can I access?

A substantial volume of material can be freely accessed through the digital archive (no login required), including:

• Economia magazine back issues (2012-2020)
• ICAEW annual review and financial statements (2002+)
• ICAEW press releases (2006+)
• ICAEW representations (2005+)
• ICAEW webinars
• Research papers
• Videos
• VITAL magazine back issues (2001+)

The digital archive also holds further ICAEW material that can be supplied by the library enquiry team on request.

The Library takes snapshots of the ICAEW website every six months using Archive-It, a product from the commercial arm of the Internet Archive, alongside a range of other web archiving tools. Each capture is checked and verified for completeness.

Our digital archiving team also produces ad-hoc captures of ICAEW websites and platforms when they are scheduled for closure, such as the Economia website and the ION community platform.

ICAEW.com web archive

The capture of the open pages of the ICAEW.com website began in 2021. You can navigate the archived website or use the search box below to find individual articles. The team also capture the logged-in website separately and can search for content on request. A full list of our collections is available on the Archive-it platform.

Additional content is available through the incomplete independent Internet Archive web captures for ICAEW.co.uk and ICAEW.com from December 1997 onwards.

Economia webarchive

A copy of the Economia website was collected as it stood after the final update in December 2019. Although this capture is not publicly available, ICAEW's library is able to search it on behalf of members.

Excel Community on ION webarchive

A copy of Excel Community content prior to September 2020, from the legacy ION platform, is available at:

• Excel ION Community archive

Why did the project start with digital material?

Digital content is extremely vulnerable. The British Library has long warned of the danger that future researchers will discover a digital "black hole in the knowledge base of the 21st Century". Many organisations have already lost material from their first digital platforms for an assortment of reasons, including file corruption, poor storage and obsolescence of file formats.

To ensure continuity of access Preservica runs regular checks for file corruption and migrates content to new file formats when existing formats become obsolete.