Internet Archive becomes the Official Library of Documents of the US Government.

The United States Senate has granted to Internet files the status of federal depositary librarywhich formally integrates it into a network of more than 1,100 institutions that offer public access to government documents.

This designation was confirmed by means of a letter from the Californian senator Alex Padilla to the Government Publications Office, an agency that supervises said network. Padilla mentions in his brief that the digital approach of the archive makes it an adequate option for Modernize the distribution of official publications In an increasingly digital environment.

Direct access to official publications

The Federal Deposity Libraries program, created in 1813, allows each member of the Congress to designate up to two libraries to facilitate access to materials such as federal budgets, regulations, presidential documents, economic reports and census data.

Thanks to its new condition, the Internet Archive can access these materials more directly and reliableas explained by its founder, Brewster Kahle. This will allow these contents to be offered both to the users of the site and to associated libraries, improving the digital availability of official documents.

This positive news comes at a complex moment for the Internet Archive, which has faced recent Judicial demands by editorials and records. In 2023, a sentence forced him to withdraw more than half a million digital books provided during the pandemic, and currently faces another demand related to the preservation of 78 rpm records, which could cost more than 700 million dollars.

Keep in mind that the new status does not offer protection against these legal actions, but it does reinforce the role of the Archive Internet as a key tool for the dissemination of knowledge. In fact, it is in this repository where you can find mythical software in the history of computer science, such as the MS-DOS operating system. In fact, in our guide on how to install MS-dos on a virtual machine, we invite you to download it from your servers.