Internet Archive
A nonprofit gateway to archived websites, books, films, and audio.
Internet Archive is a large digital library that preserves web pages through the Wayback Machine alongside digitized books, films, music, and other media. It is useful for finding older versions of websites, public-domain materials, and items that can be borrowed or streamed online.
Why it stands out
- Combines web archiving and media collections under one searchable nonprofit library.
- The Wayback Machine preserves versions of sites that may no longer exist on the live web.
- Covers many media types rather than focusing only on books or only on websites.
- Includes both major institutional collections and long-tail uploads that are hard to find in commercial catalogs.
Good to know
- The site requires JavaScript to function properly.
- Some texts are borrow-only rather than freely downloadable.
- Coverage is uneven: archived web pages, metadata quality, and available file formats vary by item.
- Copyright and access restrictions can differ across collections.
Under the radar: For a specific archived page, try multiple capture dates in the Wayback calendar—missing images or broken scripts on one snapshot may work on a nearby capture.
Photos
Researchers, journalists, librarians, and students can trace vanished web pages or locate older digital media from a single archive. Check how a website looked before a redesign, deletion, or policy change. Borrow digitized books or browse public-domain texts for study and reference. Find historical films, recordings, and other media that may not be easy to locate elsewhere.
Wayback Machine web snapshots; searchable collections of texts, movies, music, and other media; online borrowing for eligible books; item pages with metadata and available file formats; user and institution collections.
Technical Notes
- Internet Archive provides documented APIs, including metadata and advanced search endpoints for item records.
- Many item files can be accessed directly in structured formats such as JSON, XML, and downloadable file lists.
Alternative listings
France’s national digital library for books, images, maps, and more.
Digital ArchiveGallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and its partner institutions. It provides free online access to millions of digitized items across many periods and formats, including books, newspapers, maps, images, manuscripts, and themed collections.
0 votesVisit site- Digital Archive
The FDA Electronic Reading Room is an official access point for frequently requested agency records and FOIA-related document collections. It organizes links to reading rooms and records across FDA centers, including drug approvals, medical device records, inspection materials, enforcement reports, agency manuals, and selected public-interest document releases.
0 votesVisit site
Similar sites elsewhere
- HathiTrust Digital Library — hathitrust.org
- Europeana — europeana.eu
- Digital Public Library of America — dp.la
- Library of Congress Digital Collections — loc.gov/collections
1 of 3