While documents stored on microfiche or microfilm are easy to copy, they aren’t easy to access. The GPO has been moving toward digital preservation since 2016 and runs an online database of government records, and in recent years, it has ramped up efforts to digitize the Federal Depository Library Program.
Participating libraries have largely pivoted to the GPO’s digital approach, but digitizing countless physical documents is a massive undertaking — one that the Internet Archive has experience with.
For years, the Internet Archive has helped libraries and other academic institutions in digitizing their collections and hosting them online. In 2022, it launched Democracy’s Library, a free online compendium of government research and publications.
Joining the Federal Depository Library Program is the next step in the evolution of Democracy’s Library, Kahle said. The Archive is “just doing what it’s always been doing,” but now, it’s more convenient.
“By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that it’s more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive, to then be made available to the patrons of the Internet Archive or partner libraries,” he continued.
The organization has faced legal challenges over some of its archival practices. Its Open Library was at the center of a yearslong legal battle after four major publishers sued the Internet Archive for temporarily lifting its waitlists in 2020 — instead of loaning its digital copies to one user at a time. By doing so, the publishers alleged, the Internet Archive illegally provided free e-books.
Last year, an appeals court upheld a 2023 federal court decision that ruled against the Internet Archive. The organization has had to remove more than half a million titles since the lawsuit started.
The Internet Archive has also been targeted by major music labels, including Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, over the Great 78 Project, an initiative to preserve 78 RPM records. Though most of the records are out of print, 4,000 of the 400,000 digitized recordings are copyrighted, including Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” The organization could owe upwards of $700 million in damages if the labels win the lawsuit — a financial hit that would threaten to shut it down.
“I think we’re really starting to understand, in our digital era, what it means for libraries to exist, to have copies of materials for the long term,” Kahle said. “To go and make those available is ever important.”
The ongoing copyright conflicts have put the Internet Archive’s status as a library up for debate. The American Association of Publishers argues that the Internet Archive “is not a library,” but an “unlicensed digital copyrighting and distribution business.”
Others disagree, including a coalition of hundreds of authors. A group of current and former university librarians wrote an op-ed in support of the Internet Archive, calling the organization “the most significant specialized library to emerge in decades” and a “modern-day cultural institution built intentionally in response to the technological revolution.”
It’s unclear whether joining the Federal Depository Library Program would do anything to bolster the Internet Archive’s defense in copyright lawsuits. Kahle said that the designation doesn’t change the organization’s practices and clarified that government publications, such as environmental reports and congressional records, are not copyrighted, so they can be digitized, archived and distributed without issue.