If you find banning books disturbing, what about burning them? 🔥 📕

Monday, 28 February 2022 — The Internet Archive

Browsing the Archive

Turns Out You Can Burn a Digital Book

In Tennessee they are banning them. But there’s more than one way to censor a book. As Internet Archive librarian Chris Freeland explains, corporate publishers are suing the Internet Archive, demanding our library destroy 1.4 million digital books. “Whether through corporate bullying or government banning, digital books are not immune from censorship,” explains Freeland. Many of these books don’t exist anywhere else online–so we are the library of last resort.

GET THE FULL STORY

New Additions

Wondering what to read/watch/listen to this month? Well, you are in luck. Since January, the Internet Archive added 5 4,000 new books; 79,5 18 new concerts, radio shows & audio items; 1 15 new audiobooks from LibriVox including “The Chinese Dragon” & the newly public domain “Winnie the Pooh.” Best of all? We are a library, so borrowing these resources is absolutely free.

HAPPY BROWSING

Building a Better Web

Perhaps you’ve heard the growing buzz (cacophony?) around something called Web 3.0. What exactly is it and how does it relate to the Internet Archive’s work with the Decentralized Web? To answer that question & introduce you to this new area of technology, the Internet Archive has joined the Metropolitan New York Library Council in presenting this 6-part series: “Imagining a Better Online World: Exploring the Decentralized Web.” Want to get grounded with a crisp one-hour introduction, complete with resource guides? Then this series is for you.

GET DECENTRALIZED

Wagering on the Web

Eleven years ago, two web developers placed a bet via a website run by The Long Now. The question: on 2/22/22, would this URL still be working? Naysayer, Jeremy Keith, bet NO, arguing that “Link rot is the entropy of the web. The probability of a web document surviving in its original location decreases greatly over time.” Matthew Haughey disagreed, believing the WWW’s technology was stable enough to endure to February 22, 2022. Who won the wager? Click below to find out.

THE BIG PAYOFF

Elegant Improvising

When Ella & Duke rehearsed, magic happened. In 1957, Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington’s orchestra were rehearsing the song “Chelsea Bridge” and their wordless improvisations were so good Verve Records preserved the takes on this disc. Listen to Ella and Duke Ellington’s orchestra practicing for the album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook.” With special thanks to the family of Geoffrey A. Wheeler, for donating this rare LP.

Deeper Meanings

As a young boy listening to his great-grandmother’s stories, Anand Prahlad began collecting “sayings” in his head. Where does the saying, “Nothing ruins a duck but its bill” really come from? What is the context, the history, the symbolism of that proverb? In researching “African American Proverbs In Context,” Prahlad listened to interviews with former slaves, the lyrics of blues tunes, the lingo in bars, bingo games and churches. Explore this deep dive into the many levels of meaning behind African American proverbs.

One of our most important roles as a library is to support researchers — sometimes with billions of web pages that researchers can use as data. In our kickoff on March 2 for the Library as Laboratory series, the Internet Archive shows you the techniques researchers are using to analyze our web archives at scale. Register Now.