Libraries: Free for All
Libraries are trusted sources for information and lifelong learning. Yet in 2013, only 17% of public library collections were digital.
At the Internet Archive, we believe passionately that access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. Knowledge makes us stronger and more resilient; it provides pathways to education and the means to secure a job. But for many learners, distance, time, cost or disability pose daunting barriers to the information in physical books. By digitizing books, we unlock them for communities with limited or no access, creating a lifeline to trusted information.
The Internet Archive’s Open Libraries project will bring four million books online, through purchase or digitization, while honoring the rights of creators and expanding their online reach. Working with US libraries and organizations serving people with print disabilities, Open Libraries can build the online equivalent of a great, modern public library, providing millions of free digital books to billions of people.
Accessibility for All
For people with disabilities that impact reading, ebooks are a lifeline. Yet less than one in ten books exists in accessible formats.
Diverse Titles
Our library books should be as diverse as our readers. In 2015, 50% of newborn US babies were children of color, yet over a twenty-year span, on average only 10% of children’s books contained multicultural content.
Preserving Our Culture
There’s almost a century of knowledge still living only on the printed page, missing from our digital shelves.
Information You Can Trust
In this era of “alternative facts,” ready access to trustworthy sources is critical. The public needs a good reference library, grounding us in the published, vetted record. And readers need to know their privacy will be respected.
- 2.7M books digitized
- 319.5M books downloaded in 2017
- 272 partner libraries
Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.