Report: “SF-Based Internet Archive is Now a Federal Depository Library. What Does That Mean?”

From KQED:

The San Francisco-based Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents and make them accessible to the public — even as ongoing legal challenges pose an existential threat to the organization.

California Sen. Alex Padilla made the designation in a letter sent Thursday to the Government Publishing Office, which oversees the program. In the letter, shared exclusively with KQED, Padilla praised the Internet Archive for its “digital focus” and said it “is leading the way when it comes to providing online library services.”

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Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle said that while the nonprofit organization has always functioned as a library, this new designation makes it easier to work with the other federal depository libraries. That, he said, is a service to everyone

“ I think there is a great deal of excitement to have an organization such as the Internet Archive, which has physical collections of materials, but is really known mostly for being accessible as part of the internet,” Kahle said. “And 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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