The Internet Archive is a non-profit site that was funded to build an Internet Library. The primary purpose for this site is to give access to digital files to scholars, researchers and historians. What’s great about the Internet Archive is that everyone on the net has access to all of these files; audio, text, images, software and the Wayback Machine.
The Way Back Machine - The Wayback Machine is an archive of webpages, that dates back as far as 1996. Just type in a web address or keyword and click “Take Me Back.” You’ll get a directory of the archived pages, organized by year and date. For example, I typed in Yahoo and clicked on the first archived page, which was October 17, 1996. Here’s what Yahoo looked like back in the day.
Moving Files - This section includes many video clips, movies and other moving files. The Internet Archive is loaded with 138,144 total moving files. Once you click on “Moving Files” it will bring up the page below, which contains sub-categories such as Animations & Cartoons, Movies, etc. While there probably won’t be too many blockbuster movies or shows in this collection, it offers you great variety and the ability to download most of the files to your computer, free of charge.
For example, I went into Animations & Cartoons, accessed the Film Chest Vintage Cartoons sub-category and started watching “Woody Woodpecker in Pantry Panic.” One thing is for sure, they do not make cartoons like these anymore.
When you access individual files, there is normally a section that says “Individual Files.” It contains different formats and you can either click on to play in that format or right-click it and save it to your computer. FYI, MPEG4 is iPod format for videos.
The Live Music Archive – The Live Music Archive has concerts from 3,099 artists with a total of 53,644 files. You have the ability to search for artists or browse to find a particular artist you are looking for. I went into “Browse Live Music Archive by Creator,” which organizes the artists alphabetically. The majority of artists were those I had never heard of, but I was excited to see one of my favorite bands, Against Me! I clicked on the artist and it brought up a page that had a link for their concert.
Once I clicked on their concert link, I found some excellent live music mp3s. Rather than just listening, I wanted to save this my computer for future use. I scrolled down to “individual files” and where it says “whole item” (entire album) I right clicked on the MP3 Zip file to the right and saved it to my computer. You also have the ability to save individual files.
Audio Archive – The Audio Archive has a collection of over 300K files. From Audio Books and poetry to radio programs and podcasts. I was hoping to find regular music files, but didn’t find too much.
Texts – There are 533,867 texts on the Internet Archive. I accessed the American Libraries sub-category and clicked on the featured book from 1888, Goody Two-Shoes. Then I just clicked on “read it.”
I really enjoy free sites that are filled with resources and the Internet Archive definitely fits that bill. Though many of the files are a bit older, there are sure to be some buried treasures. Have any of you ever used or heard of the Internet Archive before?
