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Simon and Doris Noveck. Image credit: Reiner Leist, American PortraitsPrestel Publishing, 1999 Her father, Simon Noveck, was a voracious reader. A rabbi with a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, Simon collected books about Jewish philosophy, history, and sociology. Her mother, Doris, was interested in books about the arts and cooking. Together, they traveled around … Read more

Amid the trials of the early pandemic, the Internet Archive’s transition to remote work in March 2020 brought the challenge of maintaining engagement for our all-staff virtual meetings. In April 2020, we devised a creative solution: biweekly performances by musicians preceding our Monday and Friday meetings. Dubbed “Essential Music Concerts from Home,” this initiative mirrored … Read more

From left: Aruba’s National Librarian, Astrid Britten (Director, Biblioteca Nacional Aruba), signs the statement protecting memory organizations online as Raymond Hernandez (Director, Archivo Nacional Aruba) and Brewster Kahle (Founder, Internet Archive) look on. This was a week of firsts in Aruba. The small island nation in the southern Caribbean launched its new heritage portal, the Aruba Collection (Coleccion … Read more

Many know Aruba as a popular tourist destination with beautiful beaches. The small island nation just north of Venezuela is also home to 110,000 inhabitants with a rich history—that many are working to preserve. Aruba’s memory institutions have been digitizing materials for years. Initially, residents and international scholars could only view the items at the … Read more

A family in Hatfield, ca. 1889. L.H. Kingsley, photographer. Guest post by Dylan Gaffney, Information Services Associate for Local History & Special Collections, Forbes Library. This post is part of a series written by members of the Community Webs program. Community Webs advances the capacity for community-focused memory organizations to build web and digital archives documenting local … Read more

As an editorial strategist and tech journalist, JD Shadel spends a lot of time thinking about how the content on the internet continues to rapidly evolve. One telling example they’ve followed closely is the evolution of GIFs. Two decades ago, the web was filled with millions of jittery, pixelated, handmade GIFs wherever you looked. And … Read more

Over the years, the area around the “Prince of Persia” station has added additional decorations, including a print drawn by the creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner. Entitled A Faithful Friend, the print depicts a moment in the Prince of Persia Game where a small mouse visits the captive princess. Worlds collided recently when Jordan Mechner, … Read more

Thank you to all who joined us in our Information Sessions and took the time to share your questions with us over the past month. We received a great number of inquiries and have tried our best to answer them in this blog post.  If you find that your questions are not covered or if … Read more

“Sinykin’s Big Fiction is a book of major ambition and many satisfactions. Come for the comprehensive reframing of a key phase in U.S. literary history, stay for the parade of interesting people, the fascinating backstories of bestsellers, the electrically entertaining prose. The story of literary publishing in the postwar period has never been told with such verve.” … Read more

In the leadup to our 1st public domain film screening on April 12th, we would like to introduce the curious case of a film entering the public domain immediately upon its release. In the realm of classic cinema, few films possess the enduring charm and intrigue of “Charade.” Released in 1963, this romantic comedy-thriller captivated audiences … Read more