The Internet Archive, Our Digital Library

General chit-chat

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
Phil8659
Posts: 396
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:50 am
Contact:

The Internet Archive, Our Digital Library

Post by Phil8659 »

The Internet Archive is a world wide free and contribution supported public Library
Most corporate libraries are very restricted as to what, if anything you can down load.

The material available ranges from bad to excellent.
One of the largest works I contributed are the Harvard Classics, all 52 volumes which I digitalized and made a boxed set of.
It now resides in thousands of homes across the world. I purchased the set on Ebay and digitalized it myself.

Mostly, I will construct digital editions, in e Box format because on the Archive books of more often in single volume directories, i.e. you have to search and hope to find the whole set. And, Google rarely has anything worth while as a whole, because they deliberately degrade the scans, missing pages, operators blanking out portions of pages, etc, because they use it to try and steer you to Google Books, but, the scans can be used often 2 ways, by acquiring several of the editions of the same volume and patching them together or by getting a single page that a good edition uploaded by Microsoft or other, to make it whole.
I try to use Google work as a last resort.
I take the scans given, try to make them complete, even constructing one volume using several sources to eliminate damage preserved in the original source. I then construct an e boxed set available for study.
The Archive has many people actually contributing making material available to the world for any use.
My work is aimed at the study of Philosophy.
I even make audio books, as many do not have time to read in a busy world.
I do this, as a foundation of my own work, aimed at constructing a philosophers personal educational library as the study of philosophy actually requires a life time.

In short, the Internet Archive lets you see humanity from the gutter to the great through preserved history.

So, if you are looking for anything, even old computer games, you can keep busy with it, because you cannot possibly see all that is available there.
It is a free and very useful public resource.

And, if anyone can talk management of this forum to making another section for those who contribute to that portion of the Library using history, that might just give many a purpose to be here.

Philosophy does not exist save in its libraries. So imagine having a section here, on this forum, people learning philosophy by working as librarians for philosophy? Do you see the vision? This forum can be a school for those serious about learning what it is, by helping preserve its history.
Post Reply