In the interest of providing new and improved modes of access to Special Collections & Archives’ extensive collection of digitized materials, we’re excited to announce that we have have secured our own Middlebury College Library collection within the Internet Archive (also available via go/middleburyia).
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library based in San Fransisco whose stated mission is to provide permanent and universal access to all knowledge. In order to meet their ambitious goals, the Internet Archive allows free uploading and downloading to its 50 petabyte data cluster, engages in massive web harvesting and preservation via the Wayback Machine, and oversees one of the largest book digitization projects in the world. Certainly, we are excited join many of our peer institutions in making unique contributions to the project.
Though the Middlebury College Library collection at the Internet Archive is still quite small, currently containing a sample of works from our Vermont Collection Books & Pamphlets, we expect it to grow rapidly and act as a primary component of our digital archives strategy. Key advantages of hosting digitized content with Internet Archive include:
- Broader access and discoverability of uploaded content;
- Support for streaming and online viewing of media formats ranging from scanned books to audio to vintage video games;
- Automatic OCR for digitized texts;
- Embeddable links & players for streaming audio and video;
- Automated derivation and delivery of digital objects to users in many more file types and formats that we could reasonably support on our own;
- And – of course – that the service is free for both users and contributors.
Everyone is encouraged to pay a visit and take a look at the growing collections. Any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding Internet Archive or our digital collections there can be directed to Patrick Wallace.
Enjoy!