The Internet Archive

https://medium.com/message/never-trust-a-corporation-to-do-a-librarys-job-f58db4673351?repost=HN2

If we want to find something out, the first place many of us go is Google. It’s so dominant in the search business that “Google” is used a verb. And it seems that the word “Bing,” Microsoft’s search engine and next leading competitor to Google, is usually only uttered as a joke among the tech-savvy. Google’s mission statement, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” gives a glimpse into the philosophy that helped to make Google such a great search engine. This philosophy led to Google’s digitization of various older materials such as newspapers and books. But as the article linked above describes, Google is shifting away from its archival of old and historical content.

Archiving and putting this material online provides great benefits. It aides researchers and historians tremendously. Scanning old works preserves them forever. They become searchable, and are made available worldwide to anyone, the instant they need it. Historical documents previously available only to a few, become available to anyone who has an interest in reading them. Much of this material may be old and out of print, but not irrelevant.  So with all the benefits of storing these collections online, it’s unfortunate that an organization with the resources of Google has ramped down, or in some cases stopped completely, its efforts of its archival programs.

Fortunately, the Internet Archive exists. Its goal is much like Google’s: “universal access to all knowledge.” But, while a corporation such as Google may feel pressure to shut down its non-profitable programs, the Internet archive is a non-profit with the express intent to “build an Internet library.”

The Internet Archive is not just limited to books and historical documents. It, in essence, stores content of all types. Books, documents, audio, and video that have entered the public domain, as well as web pages and even software, are preserved on the site for anyone to access for free.

I think the Internet Archive is a great utility, and its applications immediate. My browser’s bookmark file is approximately eight years old, and contains numerous links to webpages that are no longer existent. Using the archive’s Wayback Machine, I was able to access a medical form I had bookmarked in 2008 that was no longer available on its original site. Why would I need that? Well, I don’t in this case. But it shows the power of being able to access and view material that is no longer available on the original site. While not every the web page on the Internet is preserved in the “Wayback Machine,” it has, at the time of this writing, saved 452 billion web pages. And anyone can submit a URL to be archived.

In addition to acting as a library, the Internet Archive can be thought of as a sort interactive museum. Of special interest are the vintage video games. Some of these games are playable in the browser, instantly transporting the user to the early days of personal computers. Alternatively, one could better their understanding of past times and cultures by listening to historic speeches or watching old news broadcasts, to name just a couple of the many resources available.

The Internet Archive has the potential to consolidate most of human information and knowledge into a single, searchable database, and the benefits to society detailed above are just a few from an endless list.

The Internet Archive can be found at https://archive.org/