Perma.cc

Developed and maintained by the Harvard Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School Library, Perma.cc is a web archive specifically designed for preserving sources cited in publications and research.

Perma.cc logo

Unlike Internet Archive, Perma.cc does not crawl the open web, all pages stored in the archive are captured by individual users and provided with a “perma link”. Rather than being represented in a timeline of captures, each permalink has an individual page that includes the archived page, a screenshot, and metadata. Additionally, Perma provides users an interface to organize and annotate links you have created.

The clear focus on supporting academic citation makes Perma.cc a good choice for preserving sources in your scholarly writing. Since the permalinks are relatively small (e.g. https://perma.cc/T8YP-BFC9), they are handy to add to citations and references.

Get Started

First, create an account.

  • Individual accounts start with only 10 free trial links. Ongoing use requires a paid subscription or Registrar sponsor.
  • Registrar program allows academic libraries and courts to “sponsor” accounts, providing them with unlimited usage. The Registrar provides support and training to its sponsored users.
perma link creation interface

Once logged in you can paste a url into the box, select a folder to save it in, and click “Create perma link” to capture a page in the archive. The capture process will take a few seconds. When complete you will be redirected to the new permalink (if something goes wrong you may get an error message).

perma link menu area

A blue bar at the top of the permalink page will provide information and options related to the archived page. You can:

  • switch to screenshot view
  • edit metadata and annotate the link
  • download the WARC archive file
  • delete the capture during the first 24 hours (after which they are permanent)

You can copy the URL in the address bar to use in your citation. Keep in mind that you will sometimes encounter errors and some websites block archives, so it is important to check your captures. If you encounter a page which has a valid screenshot, but archive page displays incorrectly, you can reference the screenshot by adding ?type=image to the end of the permalink (e.g. https://perma.cc/T8YP-BFC9?type=image).

When logged in your Perma.cc home page provides powerful options to organize and manage permalinks you created.

If you are sponsored by a Registrar, you will likely be part of an “organization”. Only links created associated with the org will be unlimited. It is helpful to create folders inside the org to help organize your permalinks.

The interface also enables you to search your permalinks and export the list as a spreadsheet.

If you have a list of several URLs to archive, you can click “create multiple links” below the “Create perma link” button. This will open a dialog where you can paste multiple links, one per line, and capture them as a batch process (this might take awhile). The Perma.cc browser extension or bookmarklet is also helpful if you regularly capture pages.

Perma.cc has good documentation available and a developer API.