Columbia University Libraries has been curating archival collections of freely available Internet resources since 2008. This program was originally made possible by generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and has been funded by the Libraries since 2013.

Columbia's Web Collecting Program archives selected websites in thematic areas corresponding to existing Library collection strengths, websites produced by affiliates of Columbia University, and websites from organizations or individuals whose papers or records are held in the Libraries' physical archives.

Our largest thematic web collections include:

• Human Rights (an initiative of the Center for Human Rights Research and Documentation);
• New York City Places and Spaces (guided by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library);
• and the Burke Library's New York City Religions collection.

Our University Archives collection consists of institutional web archiving of the columbia.edu domain and other Columbia-affiliated websites.

Columbia University Libraries' commitment to integrating web archiving into ongoing collection development and preservation best practice has consistently been informed by collaboration with other research libraries and the broader web archiving community. In 2012 the Libraries joined International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), and since 2015 have actively participated in the IIPC's collaborative collections initiative building joint web collections on topics of transnational interest such as Intergovernmental Organizations, and the COVID-19 pandemic. During an earlier grant project devoted to fostering web archiving collaboration, Columbia University Libraries piloted collaborative web collection development with other members of the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC) that since 2017 has evolved into an active collaborative web collecting program jointly funded by the thirteen IPLC member libraries and employing staff who are administratively based at Columbia.

Columbia University Libraries has hosted events in order to build and sustain the wider web archiving community, including the "Web Archiving Policies and Practices in the U.S." meeting (May 10-12, 2012), the larger "Web Archiving Collaboration : New Tools and Models" conference (June 4-5, 2015), and the Archives Unleashed New York Datathon (March 26-27, 2020; convened virtually).