Why it’s Important to #OwnBooks

Here’s Max Collins, lead singer of legendary alt-rock band Eve 6, reading a book that he owns.

As you know, the Internet Archive is currently being sued by four corporate publishers. The publishers want to stop libraries from owning books. In the age of Netflix and Spotify, ownership of culture is increasingly in the hands of large corporations rather than people, artists and public institutions.

We’re fighting back by celebrating book ownership with the #OwnBooks campaign. 

It’s very easy to take part. Choose a book that you own that means something to you. You can also choose another media piece, such as a record, CD, or DVD. Take a photo with the book and share it on social media. Tell us why owning this books is important to you and use the #OwnBooks hashtag.

Check out why other readers like to #OwnBooks.

You could also tell us the story of your relationship with the book – what were the circumstances in which you acquired it? Does it spark any special memories for you? If you prefer, you could make a selfie video and record yourself telling the story of the book. 

We’ll retweet your posts. Make sure to use the #OwnBooks hashtag and mention @internetarchive to help us find them.

2 thoughts on “Why it’s Important to #OwnBooks

  1. Carolyn Robarge

    I go to estate sales and find the oldest books I can find, just for the love of reading. The oldest book I have is:

    “The English Reader. Or Pieces In Prose And Verse From The Best Writers: Designed To Assist Young Persons to Read With Propriety And Effect; Improve Their Language and Sentiment; And To Inculcate the Most Important Principle of Piety and Virtue by Lindley Murray 1832.”

    I do not have social media, so thought I would let you know I follow your posts on the Internet Archive site. And I always ask the library to purchase books that they don’t have. Thank you for keeping people up to date on the attempts to restrict ownership of books.

  2. Simon Ante

    Please, preserve Archive.org at all cost! The guardian of culture, of human dignity, of history.
    The best I can do is to send little donations in the hope that Archive.org will never have to shut-down in the future.

    Keep up the great work!

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