October 7, 2009 at 1:13 pm
· Filed under New Book Collection, News ·Tagged presidio trust
The Presidio Trust is a unique organization. It is a federal agency guiding the transformation of a former military post into a self-sufficient national park. The documents added to the Internet Archive record the steps in this evolution.
The main collection includes documents pertaining to building and landscape rehabilitation, planning, environmental and historic compliance, and efforts to convey the history of the Presidio of San Francisco. Among the reports are guidance documents such as the Presidio Trust Management Plan, the Vegetation Management Plan, and the Presidio Trails and Bikeways Master Plan. Environmental assessments and environmental impact statements are included, as well as year-end reports and financial statements.
The remediation collection documents the environmental cleanup of materials left at the Presidio by the U.S. Army. It includes the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) documents transferred by the U.S. Army to the Presidio Trust in August 1999, as well as reports created since that time.
Learn more by perusing the Presidio Trust collection here.
–Barbara Janis, MLIS
Library and Records Manager
Presidio Trust
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September 25, 2009 at 1:13 pm
· Filed under Cool Books, Uncategorized
If you wander into your local bookstore or library within the next week, it’s likely you will see a shrine of sorts to banned books. Those who ban books work to lock up particular controversial writing from readers, but an equally as strong and passionate force works to keep these books freely available. Enter: Banned Books Week.
Banned Books Week is held during the last week of September in order to bring light to banned and challenged books. This week serves to celebrate the freedom to read what you want and to continue in a forceful march to keep writing available to all of the public. So, from September 26 to October 3, there will be efforts all over the country to bring banned books to the forefront–to showcase them as worthy, safe, and accessible works.
Internet Archive offers a collection of banned books in this collection to get you ready for the week. Some of the most famous banned books are highlighted below:
The Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm
The Jungle
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
O Pioneers!
Black Beauty
The War of the Worlds
Read through these classics and crack your Ginsberg, Rowling, Nabakov, or Steinbeck this week. Celebrate your freedom to read, because unfortunately some of our best writers have been sanctioned to book prison.
–Cara Binder
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August 25, 2009 at 10:38 am
· Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged GeoCities, Yahoo!
There’s a chance that in the 1990s, you were more familiar with neighborhoods on GeoCities than with the neighborhoods in your own town. As one of the most popular and oldest (nearly 15 years running) sites for self expression on the web, GeoCities paved the way for other sites which would offer a sense of community and networking capabilities. Because it was one of the first ways for people to freely and openly become engaged with the internet, GeoCities will always be an important part of web history.
Yahoo! announced that it will close the site on October 26, 2009, steering users towards their paid service instead. We have been archiving GeoCities sites for years in our crawls, but, as goes with the territory of being web archivists, we want to make sure to gather as many of the pages as possible before the looming end of an era, 10-26-2009. If you have a page with GeoCities or are a fan of a particular page, please use our special collections page to ensure its preservation. Additionally, please refer to another independent project, the Archive Team, who is working to save cultural information that may be lost with the site closing. Yahoo! is also offering valuable advice at their help center.
–Cara Binder
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July 16, 2009 at 1:24 pm
· Filed under Cool items, News ·Tagged blogging, library blogs, nablopomo
It’s likely you’ve heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), that time in November when it’s starting to get cold and hundreds of people make a pact together to write a novel in the period of one month. Many fail, some succeed, some get published, and some of the work is actually really good (which begs the question, “Did you really write this in one month, or have you been cheating all year?”).
Well, it was news to me that there is now NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). As November seems like the ideal month to cuddle up by the fire and furiously write a novel in a month, July seems just as fit to grab your laptop, go to an outdoor cafe and write a blog. The deal is you have to blog once a day for a month, but just as not everyone finishes their novel by December 1, not everyone who celebrates NaBloPoMo will blog each day in July. You’re still allowed to celebrate all things blog. And (technically speaking) this runs all year long, so have fun with it!
Here’s a round up of some of our favorite library blogs to keep you satiated during the last couple weeks of NaBloPoMo:
Harford County Public Library’s blog
The Pelham Public Library’s blog on banned books
Las Vegas – Clark County Library’s blog
Memphis Public Library’s blog
Oregon State University Libraries Special Collection: The Pauling Blog
UC Berkeley’s blog collection
For a very extensive collection of library blogs, check out the blogging libraries wiki.
Happy blogging!
–Cara Binder
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July 8, 2009 at 12:01 am
· Filed under News
Seems as though everyone is on Twitter these days. We’ve been testing it out since about February and are finding it to be a fun way to connect with our users–to share particularly exciting items on the Archive, update you about current changes in our organization, and share articles and media pieces that we think may be of interest to our audience.
So hop on the Twitter board. What used to be seen as a a medium for people with too much time on their hands has proved itself to be a powerful way to interact. Of course, we have to practice expressing all of our thoughts in 140 characters or less. 
Follow us! Internet Archive’s Homepage
–Cara Binder
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July 1, 2009 at 2:26 pm
· Filed under movies ·Tagged firefox, movies, ogg theora, theora, video
We now support the new [[video]] HTML tag when viewing movies from our site.
You’ll need Firefox v3.5+ (full or beta release) or Safari v4+ for us to show you a “try the new [[video]] tag” section under the “click to play” video area.
You can even persist a choice to always use it on our site (by us setting a cookie for you) (and you can change your mind and go back to the normal flash plugin based option).
-Tracey Jaquith
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June 16, 2009 at 10:32 am
· Filed under movies ·Tagged movies, video
We are now rolling out a “beta” feature where users can click on the thumbnails for a given video (to see the still frames) and now click on a thumbnail to jump right into that scene of the video!
-Tracey Jaquith
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June 16, 2009 at 9:57 am
· Filed under movies ·Tagged movies, video
Our flash-based player will now allow for folks to click anywhere on the timeline to have it quickly seek the film to the indicated position (previously users would have to wait for the video to download/pre-buffer up to that point first).
–Tracey Jaquith
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June 16, 2009 at 9:42 am
· Filed under movies ·Tagged movies, video
Our flash-based player supports “SubRip” files (files with “.srt” extension). About a month ago, we updated our video pages to automatically support subtitles.
One simply needs to upload a file with a “.srt” extension (in the SubRip format) along with the video file to get started. If the item includes multiple video files/tracks, you can make multiple .srt files, example:
cow1.avi
cow1.srt
cow2.mov
cow2.srt
We support multilingual subtitling as well. Our suggested naming of .srt files for language-based tracks for the best display on our site is like:
cow.mov
cow.en.srt (english)
cow.fr.srt (french)
cow.hu.srt (hungarian)
and our site will show a selector for the three different languages
subtitle: [ en | fr | hu ]
next to the video track in our player.
Example short video with subtitling.
Enjoy!
–Tracey Jaquith
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June 2, 2009 at 9:29 am
· Filed under Cool Books, Cool items, New Book Collection ·Tagged scanning centers, special collections, UCLA
More and more libraries are partnering with Archive.org to provide online access to their special collections. With this post we feature some of the fascinating collections made available online by the University of California Los Angeles
The UCLA Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale Collection:
“This collection of books by and about Florence Nightingale was a gift from urologist Elmer Belt to UCLA’s Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library in 1958. The gift honored School of Nursing Dean Lulu Wolf Hassenplug for her successful creation of the school in 1948 and her direction of it through its first ten years at the University of California, Los Angeles. The books have a characteristic mid-Victorian appearance; they are not beautiful either in typography or binding but, with content reflecting the influence of Florence Nightingale, they are immensely rich in human value. The collection includes editions of Nightingale’s influential ‘Notes on Nursing’ (1859 and later) and her other publications as well as biographies and tributes.”
Carte Italiane:
“Carte Italiane is a graduate student publication of the Italian Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since its inception in the 1979-1980 academic year, the journal has been dedicated to publishing the work of graduate students and professors in the field of Italian cultural studies.”
UCLA Yearbook:
“In March 1881 the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. In 1887, the school became known as the Los Angeles State Normal School. In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood. In 1917, the school became the second University of California campus, after Berkeley. On May 23, 1919, Assembly Bill 626 became a law, which turned the campus into the Southern Branch of the University of California. Enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so rapidly that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25 acre Vermont Avenue location. The Regents conducted a search for a new location and announced their selection of the so-called ‘Beverly Site’—just west of Beverly Hills—on March 21, 1925. In 1927, the Regents renamed the school itself the ‘University of California at Los Angeles’ and the state broke ground in Westwood.”
Paroles gelees : UCLA French studies:
“Paroles gelées was established in 1983 by its founding editor, Kathryn Bailey. The journal is managed and edited by the French and Francophone Studies Graduate Students Association; fully funded by the UCLA Graduate Students Association; and published annually under the auspices of the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies.”
UCLA Children’s Book Collection:
“Children’s literature emerged as a distinct and independent genre only a little more than two centuries ago. Prior to the mid-eighteenth century, books were rarely created specifically for children, and children’s reading was generally confined to literature intended for their education and moral edification rather than for their amusement. Religious works, grammar books, and ‘courtesy books’ (which offered instruction on proper behavior) were virtually the only early books directed at children. In these books illustration played a relatively minor role, usually consisting of small woodcut vignettes or engraved frontispieces created by anonymous illustrators.
New attitudes toward children and their education began to develop in the late seventeenth century, when many educators appealed for greater consideration of children’s distinctive needs and when the notion of pleasure in learning was becoming more widely accepted. By the early eighteenth century interest in children’s literature (and a rise in literacy) led to new markets and a flourishing of new publishers, particularly in England. Innovations in typography and printing allowed greater freedom in reproducing art through engraving, woodcut, etching, and aquatint, although illustrators were still largely anonymous and illustrations confined to frontispieces.”
–Cara Binder
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May 19, 2009 at 1:10 pm
· Filed under Cool Software, Uncategorized ·Tagged maps, USGS
For science geeks, the United State Geological Survey (USGS) is a beloved and respected organization providing a source of thorough scientific research which delves into the subjects of geology, biology, geography, and water, among others.
An important and lasting project of the USGS has been their work with topographical and interactive maps. The Internet Archive houses a collection of more than 50,000 of their United States maps which are given freely for use in outdoor recreation, scientific research, emergency response, or general interest.
Here are some particularly interesting maps:
Glen Arbor, Michigan
Half Dome, California
Central Park, New York
Chicago Loop, Illinois
Grand Canyon, Arizona
New Orleans, Louisiana
Honolulu, Hawaii
–Cara Binder
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May 12, 2009 at 10:49 am
· Filed under Cool Movies, Uncategorized
Elegant women, strong cowboys, powerful executives, and Fred Flintstone smoked. Shouldn’t that make you want to, too?
Cigarette ads once ran as frequently as alcohol ads run today. Today we see a voluptuous woman ordering a Disarono at a male-packed bar or a seemingly over-worked CEO kicking it on the beach with a freshly-cracked Corona, but not too long ago similar ads were run to encourage smoking. Although cigarette advertising seems in the not-so-distant past, taking a look at the ads themselves seems surprisingly shocking as we now live in a world that slaps “SMOKING KILLS” and pictures of black lungs on the packs themselves. Take a peek into the University of California, San Francisco Tobacco Industry Videos Collection to recall the days.
Phillip Morris sponsored I Love Lucy which scored them a pitch from Lucille Ball herself. “Don’t say cigarette! Say Phillip Morris,” Lucy exclaims to Ricky.
Similarly, Winston sponsored The Flintstones. The pitch comes in the form of a “Winston break” Fred and Barney take while their wives run around doing housework.
Pouncing on the untapped market of female smokers, Virginia Slims was always known as the woman’s cigarette. Here, it is marketed as empowering: “You’ve come a long way, baby. You’ve got your own cigarette now, baby.”
Marlboro, on the other hand, is the man’s cigarette. Out in Marlboro Country, this cigarette is perfect for the rugged cowboy who can wrangle wild stallions.
Wild horses were apparently quite the draw for male smokers. Mustang had a similar campaign, including the slogan, “If you think it would take wild horses to make you change, you’re right! You’re ready for Mustang!”
This Newport ad is a great example of the jingles and and songs used in all kind of cigarette ads.
In a much different approach, this ad shows the good people behind the tobacco and pipe industry, reaching for feelings of community and patriotism through the business of tobacco.
To hearken back some more, check out the UCSF Tobacco Industry Audio Recordings Collection and visit their homepage.
–Cara Binder
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May 8, 2009 at 10:37 am
· Filed under News ·Tagged HTTP access, uploading
This week, archive.org released a beta version of our new upload tool, created to ease sharing of your material on Internet Archive. We’ll be moving away from FTP uploads in favor of HTTP uploading which allows you to upload right on the web. When you click on the “Upload” button, you’ll be prompted to use the HTTP method, if you choose.
To use the new beta uploader:
First click the “Upload” button near the upper right-hand corner of the site or click here.
Now you can see the Share button.
Click the Share button to browse for the media you want to upload. You can select more than one file, or you can click the Share button again to select additional files.
Archive.org will automatically detect which media collection (movies, audio, texts, or other) your item belongs to, according to the type of the first uploaded file.
You will have the option to click the link to change the file type if needed.
As the file(s) upload, enter the information about your file in the given fields.
When everything is complete, click the “Share my File(s)” button at the bottom of the page to create your item page on Archive.org.
For instructions on how to upload to the Live Music Archive, click here.
We encourage you to give it a shot and offer any feedback you have on the new system. Here is a conversation that is currently taking place about the switch.
Additionally, we have a new edit tool for your items on the Archive. You can use this tool to change an item’s title, description, file formats and titles, running time, language, etc. You can also use it to remove, add, or rename files within an item.
To edit your item:
Make sure you are logged into the account you used to upload your item.
Go to your item’s details page.
Click on the “Edit Item” link at the top of the page to the left of the upload button.
Make your changes and wait 20-30 minutes for them to appear on the page.
Note: If you would like us to make derivative files, click on “Item Manager” after you click on “Edit Item” and click the “Derive” button. This will make smaller, more compressed versions of your upload.
As always, we greatly appreciate all of your generous contributions to the Archive, and we hope this new process will make this open sharing even easier.
–Cara Binder
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