2020 Census + Internet Archive = Democracy

2020 has been a wild year for all of us. I think we all looked forward to such an interesting-sounding year, and knew, at the onset of a new decade, additional importance would inherently be attached: a US presidential election, the Olympics, the sheer joy of having numerical continuity to lean on. For those who … Read more

ALA, ARL, and CARL Join the Fight to Defend Our Future Memory

Three of North America’s flagship library organizations have thrown their weight behind the movement to protect memory institutions’ digital rights. The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) just joined the Statement on Four Digital Rights for Memory Institutions Online. Together, they represent thousands of public and academic research … Read more

2026 Public Domain Film Remix Contest: The Internet Archive is Looking For Creative Short Films Made By You!

We invite filmmakers, artists, and creatives of all skill levels and backgrounds to celebrate Public Domain Day, by creating and uploading a 2-3 minute short film to the Internet Archive. This contest offers a chance to explore and reimagine the creative treasures entering the public domain, especially works from 1930 that will enter the public domain … Read more

Internet Archive Broadens Global Access to Theological Material

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash As the Internet Archive digitizes an increasing amount of material from seminary libraries, future church leaders are using modern technology to easily access ancient teachings. Claremont School of Theology, Hope International University, Evangelical Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary have all recently donated portions of their library collections to the Internet Archive or … Read more

Internet Archive Responds to Proposal for Major Copyright Reform

This week, the Internet Archive submitted a letter in response to a set of questions posed by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) regarding potential reforms to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the law that provides a safe harbor against copyright liability for Internet services who abide by notice and takedown obligations. The Senator’s questions indicate that he … Read more

Public Domain Day: Looking Ahead To 2021

Rudolph Valentino stars in the 1925 film “The Eagle.” On January 1, 2021, this film and many more will enter the public domain. What do the song “Sweet Georgia Brown,” The Great Gatsby and Rudolph Valentino in “The Eagle” all share in common? They were all first released in 1925. And looking ahead, that means that when … Read more

Discogs Thank You! A commercial community site with bulk data access

https://thequietus.com/articles/24529-discogs-more-than-200-million-dollars Discogs has cracked the nut, struck the right balance, and is therefore an absolute Internet treasure– Thank you. If you don’t know them, Discogs is a central resource for the LP/78/CD music communities, and as Wikipedia said “As of 28 August 2019 Discogs contained over 11.6 million releases, by over 6 million artists, across over 1.3 million labels, contributed … Read more

Boston Library Consortium Joins Statement Supporting Digital Rights for Memory Institutions

The movement for Our Future Memory is getting bigger, with yet another library leader endorsing memory institutions’ digital rights. The Boston Library Consortium (BLC), comprised of twenty-six research libraries in the New England area, has signed the Statement of Four Digital Rights for Memory Institutions Online. BLC joins more than forty other signatories from around the world, from … Read more

Community Webs Program Receives $1,130,000 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award for a National Network of Public Libraries Building Local History Web Archives

More than ever, the lives of communities are documented online. The web remains a vital resource for traditionally under-represented groups to write and share about their lives and experiences. Preserving this web-published material, in turn, allows libraries to build more expansive, inclusive, and community-oriented archival collections. In 2017, the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service launched the … Read more