The platform removed waiting lists to access copies of more than a million books, while thousands of students are in quarantine.
The Internet Archive announced that it has released the National Emergency Library, a platform with more than a million books in different languages, all completely free for all those who have internet connection.
In its efforts to ensure “universal access to all knowledge”, and in the face of the coronavirus crisis that has quarantined the world, the Internet Archive created this platform to fill the role of physical libraries while thousands of students and teachers find themselves in confinement.
Announcing a National Emergency Library @internetarchive–1.4 million free books to meet students’ and readers’ needs while schools and libraries are closed at global scale. https://t.co/FB1J2xSeVY and browse the collection at https://t.co/F7gcv0kP7L pic.twitter.com/NW2L0OvfkE
— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) March 24, 2020
The Archive platform is known for maintaining an old website version, but it has always had the functionality of a library. Still, it had waiting lists, as each book had a finite number of copies that could be “loaned” to users. For this reason, if one was in high demand and all of its copies had been “borrowed”, one had to enter the waiting list, just like a real library.
At the National Emergency Library, waiting lists have been removed and you do not have to be a United States citizen to enter. Furthermore, the platform has more than 1.4 million digitized books and another 2.5 million in the public domain, thousands of which are in Spanish, in addition to English, German, French and Portuguese.
Still, this is a temporary measure, as waiting lists will return once the U.S. state of emergency, scheduled for June 30, ends or the quarantine expires.
You can access the National Emergency Library and view its catalog here .
