Internet Archive — the no-cost, nonprofit digital library that has become embroiled in the nationwide battle over copyrights and free speech — is now an official source for government documents.
According to a new designation announced by California Senator Alex Padilla, the website will join a network of more than 1,000 libraries around the country tasked with archiving government documents for public view. Unlike other designated federal depository libraries, as they are known, the Archive is entirely online. The news was first reported by San Francisco’s KQED, who spoke to both Padilla and Archive founder Brewster Kahle about supporting the mission of “universalizing” all knowledge through digitization — this includes, says Kahle, “helping integrate these materials into things like Wikipedia, so that the whole internet ecosystem gets stronger as digital learners get closer access into the government materials.”
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The status is particularly notable as the Trump administration has systemically removed information from federal websites under new, “anti-woke” executive orders. Archive visitors will now have access to primary, government sources, in addition to materials uploaded by users or saved through accessible websites. The Internet Archive also operates the Wayback Machine, an online source that stores web history going back more than 28 years, and partners with libraries to pinpoint important online archival material through its Archive-It initiative.
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“As a federal depository library, the Internet Archive will help remove barriers so that communities from across the nation and around the world can access federal government publications online,” Padilla wrote in an official letter to Scott Matheson, superintendent of documents for the Government Publishing Office. “The Archive will help the Government Publishing Office advance its mission to digitize and make federal government publications accessible.” Members of Congress are allowed, by law, to nominate up to two qualified libraries for depository status. Some institutions have given up their status as they have struggled with storing mass amounts of physical material, KQED reports, which has pushed the office to invest increasingly in mass digitization efforts.
The Internet Archive has weathered several copyright cases that allege the site is an “unlicensed digital copyrighting and distribution business” providing the general public with “derivative works” that require express permission to share. The Archive and its fervent supporters have argued that the website is a specialized library, with the right to preserve works (including books, music, and other materials) in its online database. Government documents are copyright-free.
Last year, the website faced multiple cyberattacks that led to a weeks-long outage and the shuttering of both the Archive and its Wayback Machine. Hackers claimed to have access to millions of user profiles and support tickets, with the aim of exposing key security flaws in the website’s back-end.
“The Internet Archive has broken down countless barriers to accessing information,” said Padilla. In October, the website hit 1 trillion archived pages.
