Posted on December 28, 2006

Internet Archive Receives $1 Million From Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The San Francisco-based Internet Archive has announced a $1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to digitize and provide online access to historical collections from five major libraries.

With the additional funding, collections from the Boston Public Library, the Getty Research Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, and the Johns Hopkins University libraries will be added to the archive. Scanning materials under open-source principles enables cultural institutions to ensure the preservation of and public access to their holdings in digital form.

The Internet Archive has made more than one hundred thousand books available since the announcement of the formation of the Open Content Alliance in October 2005. While digital versions of the books are hosted by the archive, the books are also available to be indexed by any search engine that adheres to the alliance's guidelines concerning open access to digitized content.

"Fortunately, many great libraries are weighing the alternatives and choosing to go open instead of putting public domain materials under perpetual restrictions," said Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive. "With the support of the Sloan Foundation and the addition of new members, we are more certain than ever that the brightest future for knowledge is one in which information is shared openly."