Showing posts with label Wayback Machine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wayback Machine. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Google Books Library Project

What's the goal of this project?
The Library Project's aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers. See: Google Books
I was asked by my daughter about one of these devices whether I preferred the new device or the paper books. I would have to say I do favor the paperback but also look for advantages as to provide access to information as detrimental to providing society with the tools necessary. Receiving a gift certificate for 50 dollars to one of the books stores I might add this for a electronic purchase.

What brought this subject up was the update on the new electronic devices out there that allow you to read and download books for reading. Over the years being an advocate of sorts for the electronic development of our cultures I could see where such devices would allow extraordinary freedom to carry's a lot of books in one location. So there has to be lots said about not being in in the mood for reading one book while being attentive to others for research material. Sort of like closing in on a cold case file or something like that may have been missed supportive by research material.

So under the auspice of attaining a library of sorts was appealing to me and I thought advantages to society that cold not travel distances to the libraries yet have access from the rural locations.

***


The Google Books Library Project is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries.[1] The project, along with Google's Partner Program, comprise Google Books (formerly Google Book Search). Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable. If a book is out of copyright and in the public domain, the book is fully available to read or to download.[2]

   
1 Participants

 Participants

The Google Books Library Project continues to evolve;[3] however, only some of the institutional partners are listed on the web page currently maintained by Google:[4]

 Initial Project Partners

The number of academic libraries participating in the digitization and uploading of books from their collections has grown beyond the original five: Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library.

 Harvard University

Harvard University (and Harvard University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[5] The Harvard University Library (HUL) today is best understood as a coordinated system of more than 80 libraries with shared holdings. The University Library is also a department of the University's central administration through which the libraries collaborate in the areas of digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation.[6]
The Harvard University Library and Google are building on a successful pilot conducted by Harvard and Google throughout 2005. The project will increase Internet access to the holdings of the Harvard University Library, which includes more than 15.8 million volumes. While physical access to Harvard's library materials generally is restricted to current Harvard students, faculty, and researchers, or to scholars who can come to Cambridge, the Harvard-Google Project has been designed to enable both members of the Harvard community and users everywhere to discover works in the Harvard collection.
"The new century presents important new opportunities for libraries, including Harvard's, and for those individuals who use them. The collaboration between major research libraries and Google will create an important public good of benefit to students, teachers, scholars, and readers everywhere. The project harnesses the power of the Internet to allow users to identify books of interest with a precision and at a speed previously unimaginable. The user will then be guided to find books in local libraries or to purchase them from publishers and book vendors. And, for books in the public domain, there will be even broader access."[4]
"The Harvard-Google Project links the search power of the Internet to the depth of knowledge in Harvard's world-renowned libraries. Harvard has been collecting books for nearly four centuries. Among our out-of-copyright books are countless unique copies, unusual editions, and neglected or forgotten works. Our efforts with Google will bring about the broad dissemination of the knowledge contained in those books and, with it, significant information about the world views that those books represent .... By working with Google, Harvard is furthering an essential aspect of the University Library's mission, which is to serve scholars around the world."
-- Sidney Verba, the former Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and former Director of the University Library.[5]

 New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is an institutional participant in the project.[7]
In this pilot program, NYPL is working with Google to offer a collection of its public domain books, which will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online. Users will be able to search and browse the full text of these works. When the scanning process is complete, the books may be accessed from both The New York Public Library's website and from the Google search engine. [7]
"The New York Public Library Research Libraries were struck by the convergence of Google's mission with their own. We see the digitization project as a transformational moment in the access to information and wanted not only to learn from it but also to influence it. Our response at present is a conservative one, with a limited number of volumes in excellent condition, in selected languages and in the public domain. With appropriate evaluation of this limited participation, we look forward to a more expansive collaboration in the future."
-– David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries, The New York Public Library.[4]

 Stanford University

Stanford University (and Stanford University Libraries/SULAIR) is an institutional participant in the project.[8]
"Stanford has been digitizing texts for years now to make them more accessible and searchable, but with books, as opposed to journals, such efforts have been severely limited in scope for both technical and financial reasons. The Google arrangement catapults our effective digital output from the boutique scale to the truly industrial. Through this program and others like it, Stanford intends to promote learning and stimulate innovation."
-– Michael A. Keller, University Librarian.[4]

 University of Michigan


Notice about the project
The University of Michigan (and the University of Michigan Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[9]
"The project with Google is core to our mission as a great public university to advance knowledge — on campus and beyond. By joining this partnership that makes our library holdings searchable through Google, UM serves as an agent in an initiative that radically increases the availability of information to the public. The University of Michigan embraces this project as a means to make information available as broadly and conveniently as possible. Moreover, the UM Library embarked on this ground-breaking partnership for a number of very compelling reasons:
  • "We believe that, beyond providing basic access to library collections, this activity is critically transformative, enabling the University Library to build on and re-conceive vital library services for the new millennium.
  • "This work will create new ways for users to search and access library content, opening up our collections to our own users and to users throughout the world.
  • "Although we have engaged in large-scale, preservation-based conversion of materials in the Library's collection for several years, and have been a leader in digital preservation efforts among research libraries, we know that only through partnerships of this sort can conversion of this scale be achieved. Our program is strong, and we have been able to digitize approximately 5,000 volumes/year; nevertheless, at this rate, it would take us more than a thousand years to digitize our entire collection."
-– John P. Wilkin, Associate University Librarian.[4]

University of Oxford

University of Oxford is an institutional participant in this project.[10] Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and its historic Bodleian Library is the oldest university library.
"The Bodleian Library's mission, from its founding in 1602, has been based on Sir Thomas Bodley's vision of a library serving the worldwide 'Republic of Letters', with the Library's collections open to all who have need to use them. To this day over 60% of readers who use and work in the Bodleian Library have no direct affiliation with the University of Oxford . The Google Library Project in Oxford testifies to our ongoing commitment to enable and facilitate access to our content for the scholarly community and beyond. The initiative will carry forward Sir Thomas Bodley's vision and the ethos of the Bodleian Library into the digital age, allowing readers from around the world to access the Library's collections over the World Wide Web."
-– Ronald Milne, former Director of Oxford University Library & Bodleian Librarian.[4]

 Additional Project Partners

Other institutional partners have joined the Project in the years since the partnership was first announced.

 Bavarian State Library

The Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek or BSB) is an institutional participant in the project.[11]
"With today's announcement we are opening our library to the world and bringing the true purpose of libraries — the discovery of books and knowledge — a decisive step further in into the digital era. This is an exciting effort to help readers around the world discover and access Germany's rich literary tradition online — whenever and wherever they want."
— Dr. Rolf Griebel, Director General of the Bavarian State Library.[4]

 Columbia University

Columbia University (and Columbia University Library System) is an institutional participant in the project.[4]
"Our participation in the Google Book Search Library Project will add significantly to the extensive digital resources the Libraries already deliver," said James Neal, Columbia's vice president for information services and university librarian. "It will enable the Libraries to make available more significant portions of its extraordinary archival and special collections to scholars and researchers worldwide in ways that will ultimately change the nature of scholarship."
— James G. Neal, University Librarian and Vice-President for Information Services at Columbia University.[4]

 Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) is an institutional participant in the project.[12] The CIC developed in the late 1950s from a cautious exploration of the ways in which 11 major universities — two private and nine state-supported — might pool their resources for the common good. Today the CIC is an active participant in the Google Books Library Project, which becomes something of a logical extension of the initial working relationships forged a half century ago amongst Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago.
The CIC is guided by the Provosts of the member universities; and the CIC Digital Library Initiatives Overview Committee monitors the digitization and dissemination of books in the CIC collections.[13]
"This partnership with Google is one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of the CIC, and sets the stage for a remarkable transformation of library services and information access. We're opening up these resources as both a common good shared among the universities, as well as a public good available more broadly. "
— Barbara McFadden Allen, Director of the CIC.[4]

 Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense) is an institutional participant in the project.[14]
"Out-of-copyright books previously only available to people with access to the University Complutense of Madrid's Library, or the money to travel, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project."
— Carlos Berzosa, Chancellor.[4]

 Cornell University

Cornell University (and Cornell University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[15]
"Research libraries today are integral partners in the academic enterprise through their support of research, teaching and learning. They also serve a public good by enhancing access to the works of the world's best minds. As a major research library, Cornell University Library is pleased to join its peer institutions in this partnership with Google. The outcome of this relationship is a significant reduction in the time and effort associated with providing scholarly full-text resources online."
— Ann R. Kenney, Interim Cornell University Librarian.[4]

 Ghent University Library

Ghent University (and Boekentoren/Ghent University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[16]
'We are thrilled to open our books and our library to the world through this project. This is an exciting effort to help readers — no matter where they are — discover and access part of Belgium and Europe's rich literary tradition and culture. In addition, we are about to start a multi-year project to renovate our library building, and while our library's doors will be closed, its books will remain open to students and academics through Google Book Search."
— Sylvia Van Peteghem, Chief Librarian, Ghent University Library.[4]

 Keio University

Keio University (and Keio Media Centers (Libraries)) is an institutional participant in the project.[17]
"The Google project allows us to make our collections visible worldwide, so that our books will contribute to research and education on a global scale. Our university was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa, who was well known for his commitment to bringing information and media forward in modern Japan. This makes Keio ideally suited to be the first Japanese library to participate in Google Book Search."
— Professor S. Sugiyama, Director, Keio University Library.[4]

National Library of Catalonia

The National Library of Catalonia (Biblioteca de Catalunya) is an institutional participant in the project.[18]
"It once was the case that only those who could visit our library were able to 'visit' our books. Now, anyone interested in the vast number of titles our library houses will be able to find and access them online–or perhaps just discover them by chance via a simple search of the Google Book Search index. This is a tremendous step forward for enabling readers all around the world to discover and access the rich history of Catalonian, Castilian, and Latin American literature."
-- Dolors Lamarca, Director of the National Library of Barcelona.[4]

 Princeton University

Princeton University (and Princeton University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[19]
"Generations of Princeton librarians have devoted themselves to building a remarkable collection of books in thousands of subjects and dozens of languages. Having the portion of that collection not covered by copyright available online will make it easier for Princeton students and faculty to do research, and joining the Google partnership allows us to share our collection with researchers worldwide, a step very much in keeping with the University's unofficial motto of Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."
— Karin Trainer, Princeton University Librarian.[4]

 University of California

The University of California is an institutional participant in the project.[20]
"By unlocking the wealth of information maintained within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer, the University of California is continuing its work to harness technology and our library collections in support of research, learning, patient care, and cultural engagement. In this new world, people will make connections between information and ideas that were hitherto inaccessible, driving the pace of innovation in all areas of life – academic, economic, and civic – and enhancing the use of the world's great libraries.
"With digital copies of our library holdings, we will also provide a safeguard for the countless thousands of authors, publishers, and readers who would be devastated by catastrophic loss occasioned, for example, by natural disaster. Anyone who doubts the impact that such disaster can have on our cultural memory need look no further than the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on our sister libraries in the Gulf States.
"As an institution that has built these vast collections as a public good and in the public trust, joining the Google library partnership was the right thing to do."
— Daniel Greenstein, Associate Vice Provost for Scholarly Information and University Librarian.[4]

University Library of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne (and the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne) is an institutional participant in the project.[21]
"Out of copyright books previously only available to people with access to Lausanne's university library, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project".
— Hubert A. Villard, Director of the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne.[4]

 University of Mysore

The University of Mysore (and the Mysore University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.[22]

 University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin (and the University of Texas Libraries) is an institutional participant in this project.[23]
"University libraries in our society are entrusted with the critical mission of collecting and providing access to information spanning the entire range of human knowledge. Our libraries are also responsible for effectively preserving this knowledge and ensuring access to it over vast periods of time. At the University of Texas at Austin, we hold a deep commitment to each of these objectives and believe that participating in this venture will help ensure our ability to meet those commitments far into the future."
— Fred Heath, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries.[4]

 University of Virginia

The University of Virginia (and the University of Virginia Library) is an institutional participant in this project.[24]
"The U.Va. Library was a pioneer in digitizing public domain materials. We started with printed texts in 1992, and faculty and students quickly discovered that long-forgotten and out-of-print texts could reach new audiences and spark new scholarship. We have often talked about libraries without walls, but now we are even closer to realizing that vision, thanks to this partnership."
— Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, University of Virginia.[4]

 University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (and the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection) is an institutional participant in this project.[25]
"The combined library collections of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library comprise one of the largest collections of documents and historical materials in the United States. Through this landmark partnership with Google, Wisconsin is taking a leading role in preserving public domain works for future generations and making the Library's resources widely available for education and research. This effort truly exemplifies the vision of The Wisconsin Idea—the notion that the boundaries of the university are limitless. The Wisconsin libraries have been following in this tradition. The Google digitization efforts will enable the libraries to expand access to public domain materials that have heretofore only been accessible in the libraries. Much of this material is rare and one-of-a-kind, providing a rich, open source of information for educational, research and general public use."
— Edward Van Gemert, Interim Director, UW–Madison Libraries.[4]

 See also

 Notes

  1. ^ Stein, Linda L. et al. (2009). Literary Research and the American Realism and Naturalism Period: Strategies and Sources, p. 261.
  2. ^ Google Books Library Project – An enhanced card catalog of the world's books
  3. ^ O'Sullivan, Joseph and Adam Smith. "All booked up," Googleblog. December 14, 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Google Library Partners
  5. ^ a b Harvard + Google
  6. ^ HUL summary/overview
  7. ^ a b New York Public Library + Google
  8. ^ Stanford + Google
  9. ^ Michigan + Google
  10. ^ Oxford + Google
  11. ^ Bavaria + Google (in English); Staatsbibliothek + Google (in German)
  12. ^ CIC + Google
  13. ^ CIC overview
  14. ^ Madrid + Google (in English); Complutense Universidad + Google (in Spanish)
  15. ^ Cornell + Google
  16. ^ Ghent/Gent + Google
  17. ^ Keio + Google (in English); Keio + Google (in Japanese)
  18. ^ Biblioteca de Catalunya (BNC) + Google (in Spanish)
  19. ^ Princeton + Google
  20. ^ California + Google
  21. ^ Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire/BCU + Google (in French)
  22. ^ Mysore + Google
  23. ^ Texas + Google
  24. ^ Virginia + Google
  25. ^ Wisconsin + Google

 References

 External links

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Friday, November 18, 2011

Occupy Wall Street



So what are your thoughts on Occupy Wall Street ?

Sorry for all the links but they have been put out in order for some to understand the larger context. There has been something seriously wrong in our societies for a while now…but of course this is just my opinion.

Screen capture from Adbusters' first uncommercial.


The roots of this discontent I think go back much further then what some of us realize? The Adbusters Media Foundation

Also, have you ever read RECLAIMING THE COMMONS or, THE CRISES OF DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM

If last two links do not work.....using what's called the WayBack Machine the links can be accessed here through typing url links supplied above there

If one wanted to disadvantage society even more from learning of the historical footprints that we have established,  then,  what better way but to wipe out the memory. So lets watch out for that . The Wayback Machine.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011

Redefining the Architecture of Memory

It's an older article but definitely worth the read in context of spintronics technology.

At I.B.M.’s research lab in San Jose, Calif., Stuart S. P. Parkin is working on a device that could increase chip data storage by 10 to 100 times.

Redefining the Architecture of Memory

 

By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: September 11, 2007

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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Google Search Charcters: Eliza and The Wayback Machine

Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.
Soren Kierkegaard

Now this quote above by Soren is not just an application, to a point of view, but of an idea about what we can funnel through and forward using the connective links as an Wayback machine, as to living our lives forward.

This is a perspective that Plato has in terms of the the analogy of the Cave but of what one looks at while knowing behind them is the sun. It's potential in terms of information. If that information is all pervasive, exists around us not only in terms of data transmission then what relevance to information may be gleaned as to understand the person them self, their search of life, as to looking Wayback as a choice to voice, and then to move forward?

Concrete things easily settle the option to conclude any search and to understand that such a way forward has been concluded and any future relevance based on the amount of Wayback information accessibility the avatar will give. Currently such an algorithm is beening built into the Gatekeepers program currently designed by Google?

Example of ELIZA in Emacs.
ELIZA is a computer program and an early example of primitive natural language processing. ELIZA operated by processing users' responses to scripts, the most famous of which was DOCTOR, a simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Using almost no information about human thought or emotion, DOCTOR sometimes provided a startlingly human-like interaction. ELIZA was written at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum between 1964 to 1966.
When the "patient" exceeded the very small knowledge base, DOCTOR might provide a generic response, for example, responding to "My head hurts" with "Why do you say your head hurts?" The response to "My mother hates me" would be "Who else in your family hates you?" ELIZA was implemented using simple pattern matching techniques, but was taken seriously by several of its users, even after Weizenbaum explained to them how it worked. It was one of the first chatterbots in existence.
 ***

Eliza, computer therapist

This javascript version of ELIZA was originally written by Michal Wallace and significantly enhanced by George Dunlop.

***
Okay I think you've made the connection now? You understand how an avatar may be used to supplant Google's search engine,. An activation by voice as too defining statistical relevance to the questions in mind and what lies at the edge of our current research? For those Quantum gravity researchers this is important. Keeping abreast of all the data out there.

Chiseled and honed to Plato's likeness I would have preferred Raphael School of Athen Image of Plato  but for yourself according to  your theme? Google Search characters can come in all shades given the algorithm lines placed underneath the image of the face.

Remember this has nothing to do about truth but is more the understanding that statistics are used in order to classify search functions as too popularity and Eliza's name was chosen for now...becomes a select programming feature that has to be married to a virtual image or face, that becomes the future of our Google search functions?

So by name and chosen avatar, the personal features become a method by which Google Search characters become automatic according to the depth of the algorithmic world created by one's personalization features selected.
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Igniting Neurons:Time Travel

Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.
Soren Kierkegaard





The image illustrates the Wayback machine from the Mr. Peabody and Sherman segment of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon. The image supports the article on the subject: Wayback machine. The screen shot was selected to illustrate the nature and size of the Wayback machine (compare to images of UNIVAC or ENIAC machines).

I mean whats sets the whole package off to wonder how such neurons once isolated,  as to being components of all the things we learn, then becomes a method by which we now see ? What sets off the spark to think that technologies will be superseded by the efforts by mind,  to think that all we have to do is turn the switch off? The technologies no longer work? That this is somehow the fate of a mind who no longer seeks to find meaning, or,  is settled to the fate of mundane happenings which replay them-self time and time again.

Boids is an artificial life program, developed by Craig Reynolds in 1986, which simulates the flocking behaviour of birds. His paper on this topic was published in 1987 in the proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH conference. The name refers to a "bird-like object", but its pronunciation evokes that of "bird" in a stereotypical New York accent.
As with most artificial life simulations, Boids is an example of emergent behavior; that is, the complexity of Boids arises from the interaction of individual agents (the boids, in this case) adhering to a set of simple rules. The rules applied in the simplest Boids world are as follows:

So, you've built up this vast reservoir of information as neurons, and all time that began from embryonic growth seeks to find them-self distinct to all the functions of the human body.  To think we have become who we are today,  as a sign of all these possibilities are but the evolution of a pattern played out as an example of the evolution of being manifested through this body? Manifest now,  once one expresses through the fingers as an extension of mind, to be built up, as all those things which represent self .

So you step back then, looking as if from outside, looking in,  as to wonder what is new being garnered are but piecemeal represents some larger view of the reality of groups, to present an awareness greater then that which is though to exist, as some local issue in it's understanding,  is more the societal flock with purpose, unawares of the significance of choices made? How do societies change?



Andrey Kravtsov's computer modelling comes to mind. See: Early Universe Formation


So there is then this reservoir of information, many facets and capabilities of mind to choose those things which are brought together through the journey,  all encompassing it's growth, this potential exists as if a flash, like lightning strikes from which are born new neuronal pathways. Perception, is then changed. Many connections in life take place where none were seen before.

See Also:

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Monday, July 18, 2011

Internet Archive: WayBack Machine

Internet Archive


Coordinates: 37°46′56.3″N 122°28′17.65″W
Internet Archive
Type Digital library
Founded 1996
Key people Brewster Kahle (Chairman)
Website archive.org
Alexa rank decrease 230 (April 2011)[1]
Available in English

Internet Archive headquarters was in the Presidio, a former US military base in San Francisco, from 1996 to 2009.

As of November 2009, new Internet Archive headquarters at 300 Funston in San Francisco, CA, a former Christian Science Church

Mirror of the Internet Archive in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
(Click on Image)
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php


The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge."[2][3] It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive was founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996. It is a member of the IIPC (International Internet Preservation Consortium).[4]

With offices located in San Francisco, California, USA and data centers in San Francisco, Redwood City, and Mountain View, California, USA, the Archive's largest collection is its web archive, "snapshots of the World Wide Web." To ensure the stability and endurance of the Internet Archive, its collection is mirrored at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

The Archive allows the public to both upload and download digital material to its data cluster, and provides unrestricted online access to that material at no cost. The Archive also oversees one of the world's largest book digitization projects. It is a member of the American Library Association and is officially recognized by the State of California as a library.[5]

In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating for a free and open Internet.

The Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit operating in the United States. It has a staff of 200, most of whom are book scanners in its book scanning centers. Its main office in San Francisco houses about 30 employees. The Archive has an annual budget of $10 million, derived from a variety of sources: revenue from its Web crawling services, various partnerships, grants, donations, and the Kahle-Austin Foundation.[6]

Contents

History

Brewster Kahle founded the Archive in 1996 at the same time that he began the for-profit web crawling company Alexa Internet. The Archive began to archive the World Wide Web from 1996, but it did not make this collection available until 2001, when it developed the Wayback Machine. In late 1999, the Archive expanded its collections beyond the Web archive, beginning with the Prelinger Archive. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software. It hosts a number of other projects: the NASA Images Archive, the contract crawling service Archive-It, and the wiki-editable library catalog and book information site Open Library. Recently, the Archive has begun working to provide specialized services relating to the information access needs of the print-disabled.

According to its website:
Most societies place importance on preserving artifacts of their culture and heritage. Without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form. The Archive's mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars.

Wayback Machine

Main article: Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive has capitalized on the popular use of the term "WABAC Machine" from a segment of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon, and uses the name "Wayback Machine" for its service that allows archives of the World Wide Web to be searched and accessed.[7] This service allows users to see archived versions of web pages of the past, what the Internet Archive calls a "three dimensional index". Millions of websites and their associated data (images, source code, documents, etc.) are saved in a gigantic database. The service can be used to see what previous versions of websites used to look like, to grab original source code from websites that may no longer be directly available, or to visit websites that no longer even exist. Not all websites are available, however, because many website owners choose to exclude their sites. As with all sites based on data from web crawlers, the Internet Archive misses large areas of the web for a variety of other reasons. International biases have also been found in its coverage, although this does not seem to be the result of a deliberate policy [8]

Examples from the Wayback
Machine's archives:
The use of the term "Wayback Machine" in the context of the Internet Archive has become so common that "Wayback Machine" and "Internet Archive" are almost synonymous. This usage occurs in popular culture, e.g., in the television show Law and Order: Criminal Intent ("Legacy", first run Aug. 3, 2008), an extra playing a computer tech uses the "Wayback Machine" to find an archive of a student's Facebook style website. Snapshots usually take at least 6–18 months to be added.

Open Library

Main article: Open Library
The Open Library is another project of the Internet Archive. The site seeks to include a web page database for every book ever published, a sort of open source version of WorldCat. It holds 23 million catalog records of books, in addition to the full texts of about 1,600,000 public domain books, which are fully readable and downloadable.[9][10] Open Library is a free/open source software project, with its source code freely available on the Open Library site.

Archive-It

First deployed in early 2006, Archive-It is a subscription service that allows institutions and individuals to build and preserve collections of born digital content.[11] Through a web application, Archive-It partners can harvest, catalog, manage, and within 24 hours browse their archived collections. Collections are hosted by the Internet Archive and available to the public with full-text search. Content collected through Archive-It is stored with a primary and back up copy, is periodically indexed into the Internet Archive's general archive, and a copy of the data can be sent to the partner institutions.

As of March 2009, Archive-It has 125 partner institutions in 42 US States and 11 countries who have captured over a 1.5 billion URL's for 963 public collections.

Archive-It partners are universities and college libraries, state archives, federal institutions, museums and cultural organizations, including the Electronic Literature Organization, the State Archives of North Carolina, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Stanford University, the National Library of Australia, the Research Libraries Group (RLG), and many others.

nasaimages.org

NASA Images was created through a Space Act Agreement between the Internet Archive and NASA to bring public access to NASA's image, video, and audio collections in a single, searchable resource. The NASA Images team works closely with all of the NASA centers to keep adding to the ever-growing collection at nasaimages.org. The site launched in July 2008 and now has more than 100,000 items online.

Media collections

In addition to web archives, the Internet Archive maintains extensive collections of digital media that are attested by the uploader to be in the public domain in the United States or licensed under a license that allows redistribution, such as Creative Commons licenses. The media are organized into collections by media type (moving images, audio, text, etc.), and into sub-collections by various criteria. Each of the main collections includes an "Open Source" sub-collection where general contributions by the public are stored.

Moving image collection

Aside from feature films, IA's Moving Image collection includes: newsreels; classic cartoons; pro- and anti-war propaganda; Skip Elsheimer's "A.V. Geeks" collection; and ephemeral material from Prelinger Archives, such as advertising, educational and industrial films and amateur and home movie collections.
IA's Brick Films collection contains stop-motion animation filmed with Lego bricks, some of which are "remakes" of feature films. The Election 2004 collection is a non-partisan public resource for sharing video materials related to the 2004 United States Presidential Election. The Independent News collection includes sub-collections such as the Internet Archive's World At War competition from 2001, in which contestants created short films demonstrating "why access to history matters." Among their most-downloaded video files are eyewitness recordings of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The September 11th Television Archive contains archival footage from the world's major television networks of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 as they unfolded on live television.
Some of the films available on the Internet Archive are:
See also Wikipedia list of films freely available on the Internet Archive.

Audio collection

Main article: Live Music Archive
The audio collection includes music, audio books, news broadcasts, old time radio shows and a wide variety of other audio files.

The Live Music Archive sub-collection includes over 50,000 concert recordings from independent artists, as well as more established artists and musical ensembles with permissive rules about recording their concerts such as the Grateful Dead, and more recently, The Smashing Pumpkins. Jordan Zevon has also allowed anyone to share concert recordings of his father Warren Zevon on the Internet Archive.

Text collection


Internet Archive book scanner
The texts collection includes digitized books from various libraries around the world as well as many special collections. The Internet Archive operates 23 scanning centers in five countries, digitizing about 1,000 books a day, financially supported by libraries and foundations.[12] As of November 2008, when there were about 1 million texts, the entire collection was over 0.5 petabytes, which includes raw camera images, cropped and skewed images, PDFs, and raw OCR data.[13]

Between about 2006 and 2008 Microsoft Corporation had a special relationship with Internet Archive texts through its Live Search Books project, scanning over 300,000 books which were contributed to the collection, as well as financial support and scanning equipment. On May 23, 2008 Microsoft announced it would be ending the Live Book Search project and no longer scanning books.[14] Microsoft made its scanned books available without contractual restriction and donated its scanning equipment to its former partners.[14]

Around October 2007 Archive users began uploading public domain books from Google Book Search.[15] As of May 2011 there were over 900,000 Google-digitized books in the Archive's collection, out of a total of 2.8 million books. The books are identical to the copies found on Google, except without the Google watermarks, and are available for unrestricted use and download, like all Internet Archive materials.[16]

Controversies and legal disputes

National Security Letter
An NSL issued to the Internet Archive demanding information about a user
On May 8, 2008, it was revealed that the Internet Archive successfully challenged an FBI National Security Letter asking for logs on an undisclosed user.[17][18]

Scientology

See also: Scientology and the Internet
In late 2002, the Internet Archive removed various sites critical of Scientology from the Wayback Machine.[19] The error message stated that this was in response to a "request by the site owner."[20] It was later clarified that lawyers from the Church of Scientology had demanded the removal and that the actual site owners did not want their material removed.[21]

Healthcare Advocates, Inc.

In 2003, Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey defended a client from a trademark dispute using the Archive's Wayback Machine. The lawyers were able to show that the plaintiff's claims were invalid based on the content of their web site from several years prior. The plaintiff, Healthcare Advocates, then amended their complaint to include the Internet Archive, accusing the organization of copyright infringement as well as violations of the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Healthcare Advocates claimed that, since they had installed a robots.txt file on their website, even if after the initial lawsuit was filed, the Archive should have removed all previous copies of the plaintiff website from the Wayback Machine.[22] The lawsuit was settled out of court.[23]

Robots.txt is used as part of the Robots Exclusion Standard, a voluntary protocol the Internet Archive respects that disallows bots from indexing certain pages delineated by the creator as off-limits. As a result, the Internet Archive has rendered unavailable a number of websites that are now inaccessible through the Wayback Machine. Currently, the Internet Archive applies robots.txt rules retroactively; if a site blocks the Internet Archive, like Healthcare Advocates, any previously archived pages from the domain are also rendered unavailable. In cases of blocked sites, only the robots.txt file is archived.
However, the Internet Archive also states, "Sometimes a web site owner will contact us directly and ask us to stop crawling or archiving a site. We comply with these requests."[24] In addition, the website says: "The Internet Archive is not interested in preserving or offering access to Web sites or other Internet documents of persons who do not want their materials in the collection."[25]

Suzanne Shell

On December 12, 2005, activist Suzanne Shell demanded Internet Archive pay her US$100,000 for archiving her website profane-justice.org between 1999 and 2004.[26] Internet Archive filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on January 20, 2006, seeking a judicial determination that Internet Archive did not violate Shell’s copyright. Shell responded and brought a countersuit against Internet Archive for archiving her site, which she alleges is in violation of her terms of service.[27] On February 13, 2007, a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Colorado dismissed all counterclaims except breach of contract.[26] The Internet Archive did not move to dismiss copyright infringement claims Shell asserted arising out of its copying activities, which will also go forward.[28]

On April 25, 2007, Internet Archive and Suzanne Shell jointly announced the settlement of their lawsuit. The Internet Archive said, “Internet Archive has no interest in including materials in the Wayback Machine of persons who do not wish to have their Web content archived. We recognize that Ms. Shell has a valid and enforceable copyright in her Web site and we regret that the inclusion of her Web site in the Wayback Machine resulted in this litigation. We are happy to have this case behind us.” Ms. Shell said, “I respect the historical value of Internet Archive’s goal. I never intended to interfere with that goal nor cause it any harm.”[29]

Grateful Dead

In November 2005, free downloads of Grateful Dead concerts were removed from the site. John Perry Barlow identified Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann as the instigators of the change, according to a New York Times article.[30] Phil Lesh commented on the change in a November 30, 2005, posting to his personal website:
It was brought to my attention that all of the Grateful Dead shows were taken down from Archive.org right before Thanksgiving. I was not part of this decision making process and was not notified that the shows were to be pulled. I do feel that the music is the Grateful Dead's legacy and I hope that one way or another all of it is available for those who want it.[31]
A November 30 forum post from Brewster Kahle summarized what appeared to be the compromise reached among the band members. Audience recordings could be downloaded or streamed, but soundboard recordings were to be available for streaming only. Concerts have since been re-added.[32]

Opposition to Google Books Settlement

The Internet Archive is a member of the Open Book Alliance, which has been among the most outspoken critics of the Google Book Settlement. The Archive advocates an alternative digital library project.

See also

Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine - A guide to the Internet Archive's Wayback machine.

Similar projects

Other

References

  1. ^ "archive.org - Site Information from Alexa". Retrieved 2011-04-17.
  2. ^ Internet Archive Frequently Asked Questions
  3. ^ Internet Archive: Universal Access to all Knowledge
  4. ^ Members (International Internet Preservation Consortium)
  5. ^ "Internet Archive officially a library", May 2, 2007.
  6. ^ CabinetMagazine.org
  7. ^ Green, Heather (February 28, 2002). "A Library as Big as the World: Brewster Kahle has the technology to assemble the ultimate archive of human knowledge. What's stopping him? Restrictive copyright laws". Business Week Online. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  8. ^ Thelwall, M. & Vaughan, L. (2004). A fair history of the Web? Examining country balance in the Internet Archive, Library & Information Science Research, 26(2), 162-176.
  9. ^ Gonsalves, Antone (December 20, 2006). "Internet Archive Claims Progress Against Google Library Initiative". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  10. ^ "The Open Library Makes Its Online Debut". Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wired Campus. July 19, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
  11. ^ Stefanie Olsen, "Preserving the Web one group at a time", CNet News.com, May 1, 2006.
  12. ^ "Books Scanning to be Publicly Funded", announcement by Brewster Khale, May 23, 2008.
  13. ^ "Bulk Access to OCR for 1 Million Books", via Open Library Blog, by raj, November 24, 2008.
  14. ^ a b "Book search winding down", Live Search Blog. Official announcement from Microsoft. Last accessed May 23, 2008.
  15. ^ Google Books at Internet Archive.
  16. ^ Books imported from Google have a metadata tag of scanner:google for searching purposes. The archive links back to Google for PDF copies, but also maintains a local PDF copy, which is viewable under the "All Files: HTTP" link.
  17. ^ FBI rescinds secret order for Internet Archive records, CNet.
  18. ^ Nakashima, Ellen, "FBI Backs Off From Secret Order for Data After Lawsuit", Washington Post, May 8, 2008.
  19. ^ Bowman, Lisa M (September 24, 2002). "Net archive silences Scientology critic". CNET News.com. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  20. ^ Jeff (September 23, 2002). "exclusions from the Wayback Machine" (Blog). Wayback Machine Forum. Internet Archive. Retrieved 2007-01-04. Author and Date indicate initiation of forum thread.
  21. ^ Miller, Ernest (September 24). "Sherman, Set the Wayback Machine for Scientology" (Blog). LawMeme. Yale Law School. Retrieved 2007-01-04. The posting is billed as a 'feature' and lacks an associated year designation; comments by other contributors appear after the 'feature' .
  22. ^ Dye, Jessica (2005). "Website Sued for Controversial Trip into Internet Past". EContent. 28 (11): 8–9.
  23. ^ Bangeman, Eric (August 31 2006). "Internet Archive Settles Suit Over Wayback Machine". Ars technica. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  24. ^ Some sites are not available because of Robots.txt or other exclusions.
  25. ^ How can I remove my site's pages from the Wayback Machine?.
  26. ^ a b Lewis T. Babcock (February 13, 2007). Internet Archive v. Shell (PDF), Civil Action No. 06cv01726LTBCBS.
  27. ^ Claburn, Thomas (March 16, 2007). "Colorado Woman Sues To Hold Web Crawlers To Contracts". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
  28. ^ Samson, Martin. Internet Archive v. Suzanne Shell. via Phillips Nizer LLP.
  29. ^ Internet Archive and Suzanne Shell Settle Lawsuit, April 25, 2007.
  30. ^ Jeff Leeds; Jesse Fox Mayshark (December 1, 2005). "Wrath of Deadheads stalls a Web crackdown". International Herald Tribune (republication of article from The New York Times). Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  31. ^ Phil Lesh (November 30, 2005). "An Announcement from Phil Lesh" (Blog). Hotline. PhilLesh.net. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  32. ^ Brewster Kahle; Matt Vernon (December 1, 2005). "Good News and an Apology: GD on the Internet Archive". Live Music Archive Forum. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 14, 2010. Authors and date indicate the first posting in the forum thread.

Further reading

External links

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