Internet Archive 01 - Intro
This is one great, free resource. As they describe themselves, Internet Archive is a “non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.”
It has a number of ‘sections’, beside the base one (above). The two I go to most recently are:
- The Magazine Rack
- The Books section of the Archive
The Magazine Rack
As the name implies these are scanned-in old magazines. They are usually available to read online (in your browser) and download in assorted formats, like PDF or the strangely named Comic Book Zip. Don’t underestimate that last one; it’s usually a larger file than the PDF and better quality. They are usually just numbered jpg image files in a zip file.
There are some absolute gems at the Rack. Like this late 1975 edition of the Australian magazine Cinema Papers, covering a new film called Picnic at Hanging Rock.
I’ll leave you to learn how to search, so you can track down this 1978 edition of the same magazine:
Of course, there’s not just Australian ones – but it is fun to look back at the old 1960s Womens Weekly, just for the ads :-). Some of the old computer magazines are a hoot; how expensive things were in the 70s and 80s.
Archived Books
The main Internet Archive has books. They fall into two broad categories:
- Ones you can view online and/or download, without logging in to the Archive or setting up extra (licensing) software. These are usually older books, like this 1888 (!) edition of Goody Two-Shoes . That was just on the front page of the books section.
- Other books – more ‘modern’ – require you to create an Archive account, log in and ‘borrow’ them. These are more locked down, probably due to licensing requirements. You’ll also need extra software – for the licensing – and set up on your PC, but it’s not that difficult. You then download the book to your PC etc. I’ll write up some quick steps later.
AFAIK, during this pandemic, the Archive has increased the number of users who can borrow the same book. Here’s the main page of the Books to Borrow section.
It’s worth doing the one-time setup for the borrowing. There’s a huge range of interesting books. A search for Beatles produced:
And Movies:
