New Livestream Brings Microfiche Digitization to Life for Democracy’s Library

Ever wonder how government documents, once locked away on tiny sheets of microfiche, become searchable and accessible online? Now you can see it happen in real time. Today, the Internet Archive has launched a livestream from our microfiche scanning center (https://www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5RVh7U), offering a behind-the-scenes look at the meticulous work powering Democracy’s Library—a global initiative to make government publications … Read more

A 2-For-1 Cyber Celebration

The Internet has revolutionized everything from how we work to how we play—even how we do our holiday shopping. Although there’s a lot of advertising, spin, and flashy discounts crowding the Web, there are also hidden gems and common goods. This Cyber Monday, we’re celebrating the original promise of cyberspace: a place where anyone can … Read more

The Wikimedian On a Mission to Connect Everything

From her home in Wellington City, New Zealand, Siobhan Leachman is devoted to doing what she can to make it easier for the public to access information about scientific discoveries. In particular, she wants to highlight the contributions of women in science. Leachman is a volunteer Wikimedian, digital curator, and citizen scientist. She uses open … Read more

Three Ways to Celebrate Public Domain Day in 2022

On January 20, 2022, the Internet Archive, Creative Commons and many other leaders from the Open world will honor the treasure trove of works published in 1926 that will enter the public domain next year. The public domain will grow richer with canonical works from authors like Hemingway, Faulkner and Dorothy Parker, silent film classics … Read more

Boston Phoenix Rises Again With New Online Access

For more than 40 years, The Boston Phoenix was the city’s largest alternative weekly in covering local politics, arts, and culture. “It was really a pretty legendary paper. The style of the writing and the quality of writers were nationally known,” said Carly Carioli, who started at the newspaper as an intern in 1993 and became its … Read more

Link Taxes: A Bad Idea for Journalism and the Open Internet

For many years, some of the world’s largest news publishers have been seeking ways to expand their power online. In Australia, they were able to do so through an unusual form of mandatory arbitration. But underneath these kinds of proposals, whether based in arbitration or otherwise, is a claim to a new sort of copyright right. Often styled as … Read more

Protect Fair Use, Especially Now

Brewster Kahle testifying to Congress as part of the Copyright Office Modernization Committee, September 28, 2023. Fair use, the flexible aspect of U.S. copyright law, enables libraries to fulfill their public mission of providing access to knowledge, preserving culture, and supporting education and research. Fair use empowers libraries, the web, news reporting and more. Digital learners … Read more

25 Years of Making The World A Better Place

He drove a 1970’s Chevrolet Chevelle Concours station wagon, complete with faux-wood paneling and a rooftop luggage rack. Every summer, he’d drive our family up to our cabin in Northern Michigan to get us, as he’d say, “out of the house and into the woods.” It was an endless adventure of learning with my father. … Read more