What's New at the Internet Archive

On the Tweet Train

internetarchive — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:01:46 +0000

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.

–Cara Binder

archive.org supports the new [video] HTML tag!

internetarchive — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:26:40 +0000

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

movie thumbnails can jump to scene in video

internetarchive — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:32:03 +0000

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

videos can seek now

internetarchive — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:57:58 +0000

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

Archive supports subtitles now!

internetarchive — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:42:47 +0000

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

Special Collections From the UCLA Scanning Center

internetarchive — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:29:40 +0000

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

Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map

internetarchive — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:10:10 +0000

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

The Days of Sexy Cigarettes

internetarchive — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:49:23 +0000

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

Welcoming the “Share” Button

internetarchive — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:37:06 +0000

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

The Library of Congress at Your Fingertips

internetarchive — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:41:42 +0000

To visit The Library of Congress has long been thought of as a distinguished event for the privileged few. Most people throughout the world are unable to get to Washington D.C., so the plethora of resources housed in the library has remained untapped for the general population. However, as the Library of Congress continues to digitize more and more of the material in their collections, universal access to human knowledge seems in much closer reach. A child on the coast of Oregon or a CEO in Russia will be able to browse the material in the Library of Congress without the expensive plane ticket to D.C. Furthermore, books that were once considered too fragile to lend out will be available for use digitally.

The Library of Congress officially opened its scanning center this past January, and footage from the launch is now available on Internet Archive. The current holdings of Library of Congress books on Internet Archive can be found within their collection page, which now boasts more than 30,000 items.

Internet Archive is extremely pleased to be a part of this wonderful project, which we see as a perfect example of the far-reaching possibilities of digital archiving and open sharing.

–Cara Binder