The National Emergency Library – Who Needs It? Who Reads It? Lessons from the First Two Weeks

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At a time when every day can feel like a month, it’s hard to believe that the National Emergency Library has only existed for two weeks. Recognizing the unique challenges of connecting students and readers with books now on shelves they cannot reach, the Internet Archive loosened the restrictions on our controlled digital lending library to allow increased lending of materials. Reactions have been passionate, to say the least—elation by teachers able to  access our virtual stacks, concern by authors about the program’s impact, and fundamental questions about our role as a library in these dire times when one billion students worldwide are cut off from their classrooms and libraries.

For those of you who are being introduced to us for the first time due to the National Emergency Library: Welcome! The doors of the Internet Archive have been open for nearly 25 years and we’ve served hundreds of millions of visitors—we’ve always got room to welcome one more. And for those of you who have tracked our evolution through the years, we know you have questions.

When we turned off waitlists for our lending library on March 24th, it was in response to messages and requests we’d been getting from many sources—librarians who were closing their doors in response to lockdowns, school teachers who were concerned their students could no longer do research and discovery through the primary sources they had on campus, and organizations we respected who knew we had the capability to fill an unexpected gap. A need that we knew we could provide quickly in response.

We moved in “Internet Time” and the speed and swiftness of our solution surprised some and caught others off guard. In our rush to help we didn’t engage with the creator community and the ecosystem in which their works are made and published. We hear your concerns and we’ve taken action: the Internet Archive has added staff to our Patron Services team and we are responding quickly to the incoming requests to take books out of the National Emergency Library. While we can’t go back in time, we can move forward with more information and insight based on data the National Emergency Library has generated thus far.

The Internet Archive takes reader privacy seriously, so we don’t have specific analytics or logs to share (we took the government to court to assure we didn’t have to do that,) but we do have some general information that may be of use to authors, publishers and readers about the ways patrons are using the National Emergency Library. We will be sharing more in the coming weeks of this crisis.

Majority of books are borrowed for less than 30 minutes

Even with a preview function where readers can see the first few pages of a book, most people who go through the check out process are looking at the book for less than 30 minutes, with no more interactions until it is automatically returned two weeks later. We suspect that fewer than 10% of books borrowed are actually opened again after the first day (but we have more work to do to confirm this). Patrons may be using the checked-out book for fact checking or research, but we suspect a large number of people are browsing the book in a way similar to browsing library shelves.

The total number of books that are checked out and read is about the number of books borrowed from a town library

Trying to compare a physical check-out of a book with a digital check-out is difficult. Assuming that the number of physical books borrowed from a library corresponds to digitally borrowed books that are read after the first day, then the Internet Archive currently lends about as many as a US library that serves a population of about 30,000.

Our usage pattern may be more like a serendipitous walk through a bookstore or the library stacks. In the real world, a patron takes a book off the shelf, flips through to see if it’s of interest, and then either selects the book or puts it back on the shelf. However, in our virtual library, to flip fully through the book you have to borrow it. The large number of books that have no activity beyond the first few minutes of interaction suggest patrons are using our service to browse books.

90% of the books borrowed were published more than 10 years ago, two-thirds were published during the 20th century

The books in the National Emergency Library were published between 1925 and 5 years ago, because books older than that are in the public domain—out of copyright and fully downloadable. Books newer than 5 years are not in the National Emergency Library. Unlike the age of most books in bookstores, the books readers are borrowing are older books, with 10% being from the last 10 years. Two-thirds of these books were published during the 20th century.

And when people find what they need, it solves a problem, such as this subject librarian who found a book published in 1975:

A bit of Fun: Some of the least common subject catagories of borrowed books

These subject tags come from library catalog records and other annotations by organizations such as ISKME has done with the Universal School Library collection, assigned to aid search and discovery of resources for educators.

We’ll continue to glean and share what we can as this project continues and we hope that the needs that gave rise to the National Emergency Library come to an end soon.

53 thoughts on “The National Emergency Library – Who Needs It? Who Reads It? Lessons from the First Two Weeks”

  1. ada024744@adams12.org

    Is it possible to use a book or primary source for multiple checkouts for example as an educator, can I check out a source and have my entire class access it through my Google Classroom (which is password protected) for educational purposes?
    Thank you

  2. Pingback: 1,426,434 Million Books: The Internet Archive Launches the “National Emergency Library to Provide Digitized Books to Students and the Public” | LJ infoDOCKET

  4. Chris

    I found this wonderful initiative because of the recent furor around closed libraries, so I’m not familiar with the general workings of the lending library. However, if people are borrowing books just to browse and decide if they want to read it, shouldn’t this indicate that previews be allowed? Either the first chapter (like Amazon) or select pages (like Google Books).

    (Disclaimer: I do not know if a preview function exists on this site already.)

  5. JeromeM573

    Why did the number of books will decline in the coming weeks until June 30? And then, is that true that number of borrowed books that previously removed were some of them back to normal for the increasing number of borrowed books?

  7. The Ocean Man

    “Patrons may be using the checked-out book for fact checking or research, but we suspect a large number of people are browsing the book in a way similar to browsing library shelves.”

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re loading it on to say, a Kindle or similar ebook reader and reading it there. I know plenty of people do that with other library borrowed ebooks. On another note I love the library, it has a lot of interesting technology related books.

  10. Susanne Besecker

    What a gargantuan undertaking! As an educator, I thank you. As a citizen in shelter-in-place, I can see you have provided me with a place I can spend many hours carousing through and this will help ease the stress of this scary time. I came in search of books on my “WANT TO READ” list and found quite a few but had no idea you also collected so many other items and was pleasantly surprised. I thank you for your hard work on this and sincerely appreciate the efforts you have made to save so many artifacts of our current and recently past civilization. Even though this site may cause our current chain bookstores some financial hardship, this resource is nothing short of AMAZING! Benjamin Franklin would be so pleased.

  15. Samuel Akanido

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re loading it on to say, a Kindle or similar ebook reader and reading it there. I know plenty of people do that with other library borrowed ebooks. On another note I love the library, it has a lot of interesting technology related books.

  18. Jay

    For newcomers, be aware that the Internet Archive is not above censorship on their own site (which is weird for a company that is so big about transparency and information availability). They are also weirdly comfortable developing relationships with amoral, dishonest companies like the people behind Brave (founded by the guy ousted from Mozilla for wanting to violate users privacy, and because of his contribitions to bigoted organizations). When considering donations, please consider that you may be supporting a group of people who you may consider bigoted and dishonest — they are certainly willing to develope software with such people, which to me undermines their organizations claim to integrity and dedication to the public good. FYI.

  24. Ryan

    Is there any way for kids to use it without having to register, or to register using their school provided Google accounts? I have a fourth grade teacher who wants to use a book that’s in the Emergency Library, but I’m hoping there’s a way to get it to them without registering.

    1. Topmusics

      there any way for kids to use it without having to register, or to register using their school provided Google accounts? I have a fourth grade teacher who wants to use a

  31. wptarahcom

    I really appreciate the collection you have shared. This will be in the interest of most of people.I really appreciate the collection you have shared. This will be in the interest of most of people.

  35. Carol Simon Levin

    “Who needs it?” Everyone! The teacher, whose classroom set of a title is locked up in her classroom… The scholar whose academic library is closed and needs to research a subject that isn’t well covered on the web…. The reader who longs to read/re-read an old favorite in this challenging time…. The grandparent who would like to connect with their grandchild by reading a title together… The virtual bookgroup whose members can’t each request a copy of the book from a branch of their local library but still want to read and discuss and escape/relate to literature….

    I am an author, storyteller, historical researcher and children’s librarian and want to say how thrilled I am to see this resource available. As an author, I can understand the concern of authors and publishers that they might be losing revenue but I hope most will look at the big picture. The majority of the books in this collection are out-of-print so they are not actually losing sales (and they have the option of removing their books from this site). What this site is actually doing is virtually opening the doors to many of the titles currently locked down in inaccessible libraries, classrooms, university offices and the like.

    In a time of (inter)national emergency when literally billions of students around the world lack access to libraries and many families are losing loved ones or jobs and are worried about rent & food money, this library is a ray of hope making everyone’s lives just a little bit easier. And, who knows, it could even expose kids, teens, and adults to authors they might get excited about — making them want to purchase (or ask their library to purchase) a title they love or the next title an author releases!

    I have recommended this library to teachers, librarians, families and friends…and I have put my money where my mouth is, uploading my book “Remembering the Ladies: From Patriots in Petticoats to Presidential Candidates” to the library to make it more accessible during this time. If so inclined, people can buy a paper copy (or donate to a voting-rights organization) but the important thing is that people have access.

    Thank you National Emergency Library!
    Carol Simon Levin http://www.tellingherstories.com

  36. Pinta A.

    Can the IA please clarify a point?

    [quote]
    then the Internet Archive currently lends about as many as a US library that serves a population of about 30,000.
    [/quote]

    Sorry, does this mean that the IA lends out books to 30,000 *different* users? Or rather, does it mean that the IA lends out books *proportionate* to a library serving a population of 30,000. What I mean is: a library serving 30,000 people isn’t likely to lend books to all of them (I would be surprised to learn that more than 2/3 of the population actually borrowed books).

    I apologise if I am being obtuse, but it seems to me that a reader could potentially interpret it either way.

    1. Brewster Kahle Post author

      We mean that the IA lends out books *proportionate* to a library serving a population of 30,000. There is an attempt at an equivalence to how people read online to checking out books from a library, so it is a guess, but it is an honest attempt.

      1. Pinta A.

        [quote]
        We mean that the IA lends out books *proportionate* to a library serving a population of 30,000.
        [/quote]

        Ah, right. Thank you for the clarification.

        [quote]
        There is an attempt at an equivalence to how people read online to checking out books from a library, so it is a guess, but it is an honest attempt.
        [/quote]

        And a much appreciated one. I would like to think that I am not the only IA patron who finds these “big picture” blog posts valuable, both for the glimpse behind the scenes they offer and, especially, the opportunity they afford readers to see how they, too, are a part of all this.

        Perhaps, with so many people currently isolated, such blog posts might help them to feel a bit less alone. No small thing at a time like this.

        There is an attempt at an equivalence to how people read online to checking out books from a library, so it is a guess, but it is an honest attempt.

  37. Pingback: Teachers & the National Emergency Library: Stories from the Frontlines of Online Schooling | Internet Archive Blogs

  39. QUADRI SULAIMON

    I found this wonderful initiative because of the recent furor around closed libraries, so I’m not familiar with the general workings of the lending library. However, if people are borrowing books just to browse and decide if they want to read it, shouldn’t this indicate that previews be allowed? Either the first chapter (like Amazon) or select pages (like Google Books).

  44. SJ Dhyani

    While other critical needs such as health, water and sanitation are being responded to, educational needs cannot be forgotten and these have an equally detrimental impact if left unaddressed. Thanks for the information

  47. Douglas Keen

    We have been using archive.org since 2014 for our son’s home-education . In six years we have built a massive electronic library of more than 2,000 of the best books in the English language plus a plethora of educational videos. The archive has played a very, very,very important role in our son’s education and we never cease to thank God for Mr. Khale and his excellent library.

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