Internet Archive Facts for Kids

The Internet Archive's headquarters in San Francisco, California. It used to be a church!

The Internet Archive is also stored at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

The Internet Archive (often called IA) is a special online library and archive. It's a non-profit group based in San Francisco, California. This means it doesn't try to make money. Instead, its goal is to save and share information from the internet and other media.

A person named Brewster Kahle started the Internet Archive in 1996. Think of it like a giant digital museum. It collects "snapshots" of websites from different times. This helps us see how the internet has changed over the years. It also saves software, movies, books, and audio recordings.

How the Internet Archive Works
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How the Internet Archive Works

Saving Websites and More

The Internet Archive collects copies of web pages. These are like pictures of websites taken at different moments. This way, if a website changes or disappears, a copy is still saved. It also keeps old software, movies, and music.

Digitizing Books and Media

To put old books and films online, the Archive uses a process called "digitization." Volunteers and staff put books into special scanning machines. These machines take high-quality pictures of every page. Then, the images and text of the books can be read for free on the Internet Archive's website. Old films and sound recordings are also digitized this way.

One of the special machines used to scan and digitize printed books.

All the original books, movies, and records are kept safe. They are stored in a huge warehouse in California. This is just like a normal library, but much bigger! This huge collection is part of something called the Open Library. Its goal is to have "one web page for every book ever published." A computer programmer and activist named Aaron Swartz helped create it.

Lending Electronic Books

The Internet Archive also buys new electronic books. They lend these out to readers, just like a regular library. You can read these e-books on their website. You can also read them on your own computer or e-reader device. Some special reading areas at the Archive even have tables with touchscreens built in!

Keeping Information Safe

To make sure the archive lasts a long time, it has a special backup. The entire Internet Archive is copied at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. This is the only library in the world that has a full copy of the Internet Archive.

The Internet Archive lets everyone use its collections for free. This is great for researchers, historians, and scholars. The Internet Archive is a member of the American Library Association. The State of California officially recognizes it as a library.