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Think for a minute how much information there is in the world. There are billions upon billions of books, videos, audio files, images, and web pages. Every day, people absorb more information and, in turn, use it to create new data for the world to see. Now think what would happen if all this information was available digitally on a website.
While we're not there yet, one organization is striving to at least take us in that general direction by archiving historical collections that exist in a digital format. The Internet Archive, founded in 1996, works in conjunction with a number of partners including The US Library of Congress and the Smithsonian to provide free texts, audio, moving images, and software to anyone with an internet connection.
Even more interestingly, the site is working to archive old web pages through its “Wayback Machine,” having already archived 85 billion web pages from 1996 to present day. This may seem like a pointless exercise, but as the Internet Archive says, these web pages are artifacts that one day may shed light on our culture at the beginning of the Information Age. Besides, it’s fun to see how sites like Google and Facebook got their starts. You can even check out how your favorite video site, Metacafe, looked back in the day.
So why should you care about this site? For one, it’s an amazing resource for anyone, not just librarians and cultural anthropologists. There are hundreds of thousands of videos, audio files, texts, images, and software files that you can download and enjoy for free.
As a Metacafe video producer, this wealth of digital data is particularly useful as a source of stock video, audio, or images for your films. The thing to note is that we have restrictions on what sort of content can be used in Producer Rewards videos.
Generally, you can use content that is in the public domain without fear of rejection – just try to make sure it really is in the public domain. You can also use content released under a Creative Commons Attribution license as long as you contact the author and make sure it’s ok that you don’t credit him in your video.
For non-Producer Rewards videos, our rules are a bit more relaxed. You still can’t post copyrighted content without permission, but you can use media released under a Creative Commons license as long as you comply with the restrictions.
Content aside, the Internet Archive leaves a little to be desired in terms of its interface and design. Maybe it’s because the site was conceived of as a massive library, but no matter how you look at it the pages are about as bland as a card catalog.
I would not come to the site to be entertained, despite the fact that there is a lot of entertaining material there. The pages are just not organized to allow you to find interesting stuff.
The search functions are also questionable. The site allows you to search by media type, which is divided into a few dozen categories, but knowing what to search for is tricky. Generally, making your searches as broad as possible and then browsing the results is your best bet. If you have no clue what to search for, go into a category and browse by subject/keyword.
The other bothersome thing about searching the Internet Archive is that there is no readily available way to search by license type. I’m not sure if this is deliberate or not, but it would be a very useful addition to their search bar. That being said, if you take the time to look through the Archive’s massive FAQ section, they do explain how to perform such a search.
If you want to search the Internet Archive by public domain, for instance, clicking here will add a public domain thread to your search. Then choose the media type to look for and add a term to the box to narrow your search. To search Audio for “blues”, you would add the words “AND” and “blues” to the end of the public domain thread in the search box, select Audio in the media type drop-down menu, and hit the search button. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it could be made easier.
The rest of the site is fairly self-explanatory. There’s an extensive FAQ section, active forums, and an upload feature to distribute your own content. Just don’t expect too many people to find your file once it’s up.
Overall, the Internet Archive is a great resource, but not a great site. Hopefully in time that will change, because the site’s message of “universal access to human knowledge” is crucial in the digital millennium.
