Without the Internet Archive, We All Lose

Endless books. That’s certainly what I think of when I image a library. This photo is actually the Science library of Upper Lusatia in Görlitz, Germany. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

February is a month for Random Acts of Kindness — and here’s one that truly matters: standing up for the Internet Archive.

If you conduct research, read old books, or love classic films, you’ve probably relied on this open library more than you realize. As Homeschoolers, we know we can’t live without the library – and that includes the Internet Archive, our digital library. Archive is probably the most important site homeschoolers depend upon – and not just for pulling up Hemingway for lit, finding old Nature Studies guides, paging thru old magazines, watching silent films, or listening to classic radio shows.


But the real value of the Archive isn’t the scope of its holdings, impressive though they are: It’s the mission. The Archive is the only open public online space where anyone can read, borrow, download or upload materials. It’s the closest thing we have to a global rare‑book reading room.

Unfortunately, recent lawsuits forced the removal of over 500,000 books from the Open Library. Because of the ruling, commercial terms now dictate how digital books can be accessed even when a library has bought and paid for the physical copy. The result is devastating: Publishers –not libraries—control whether a book may be lent digitally.

Every day, students, homeschoolers, genealogists, teachers, folklore fans, vintage recipe hunters, and independent researchers rely on the materials preserved by the Archive. And as academic libraries increasingly close their digital collections to public, the Internet Archive becomes more important.

If we lose the Internet Archive, we don’t just lose a website — we lose the public’s access to its own cultural memory.

We can’t undo the books already taken down, but we can help shape what happens next. Libraries survive because people stand up for them — and now it’s our turn.

Here’s what we can all do to help

Financial Support If you’re able, donate. Even small amounts help. Elsewhere I’ve made suggestions for accumulating dollars and coins for donations LINK. If you’re so moved, here is the donation link

Upload public‑domain materials. Many older books only survive because regular people digitized or shared them. If you own out‑of‑copyright books, consider adding them to the Archive so others can learn from them. All you need is a free account, and you can upload today:
https://help.archive.org/help/uploading-a-basic-guide/

Help keep the Archive accurate. If a book or film has missing or incorrect details, you can report it using the Archive’s Contact Us form. They’ve limited public editing due to heavy misuse, so this is the best way to help now:
https://archive.org/about/contact

Write to Congress: Ask your representatives to support laws that protect digital libraries and the public’s right to read. Feel free to use the following, or use it as the basis to write your own:

Open Letter to Congress: Protect Our Right to Read in the Digital Age

Recent court decisions against the Internet Archive have sharply reduced the availability of digital books in libraries, restricting access for millions of readers, researchers, students, and citizens. The removal of hundreds of thousands of books from the Open Library is not just a loss of convenience — it is a loss of culture, memory, and opportunity.

These cases have revealed deep flaws in U.S. copyright law. Our laws were written for a world of paper books, not a world where reading increasingly happens digitally. Libraries are being left behind, and the public is paying the price.
We ask Congress to act now to protect digital libraries and the public’s right to read by:

1. Creating a digital first sale doctrine. If a library owns a lawful copy of a book — physical or digital — it should have the same right to lend it, just as libraries have done for centuries.
2. Codifying and protecting Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). Libraries should be allowed to digitize books they own and lend them one-to-one, with the same limitations as physical lending. CDL is a modern extension of traditional library practice, not a replacement for the commercial ebook market.
3. Requiring publishers to offer perpetual-access ebooks to libraries.
   Libraries should be able to buy and preserve digital books, not rent them under expiring licenses that erase public access.
4. Strengthening library preservation rights. Libraries must be empowered to preserve digital works, software, websites, and born-digital materials — especially as formats and platforms become obsolete.
5. Creating safe harbor protections for libraries. Good-faith efforts to preserve and lend knowledge should not expose libraries to massive statutory damages.
6. Supporting the creation of a National Digital Library. The United States should support a publicly funded digital library system worthy of our nation’s commitment to education, science, and culture.
7. Allowing access to orphan and out-of-commerce works. Millions of copyrighted works are unavailable for sale and unavailable in libraries. The public cannot wait 95 years for access.
   Libraries have always existed to ensure that everyone — regardless of income, geography, or background — can learn, explore, and grow. That mission must survive the transition to digital life.

We ask you to stand with readers, libraries, educators, and communities by updating our laws to reflect today’s reality. Knowledge locked behind licenses is not truly owned. Books that disappear when a contract expires are not part of our cultural memory. And a society that cannot preserve its own digital record will lose it.