This year, as part of Google Summer of Code (GSoC), the Internet Archive is collaborating with two outstanding contributors to make it easier for patrons to find relevant books on Open Library.
Tanishq Sangwan, a 19-year-old from Gurugram, India, and Chisom Nnamani of Lagos, Nigeria, are two of 1,141 software developers from around the world who have been selected through GSoC to hone their engineering capabilities with open-source organizations.
“The Internet Archive’s focus for 2026 is: tools for participation. Participation must be earned by building an experience patrons want to return to.” said Mek, program lead for Open Library. “The work that both Chisom and Tanishq are doing is central to creating a more reliable Open Library experience, where readers can repeatedly discover, access, and enjoy books.”
Tanishq Sangwan
Sangwan, who just completed his second year of college studying artificial intelligence, is focusing on the journey of patrons who join Open Library and use it once, but do not return. His objective is to understand where patrons encounter barriers and identify opportunities to create a more useful, lasting experience.
Sangwan comes into the project with two years of experience from ZNotes, an educational organization that provides free notes and videos from students around the world.
“I built this passion and got this amazing feeling when my work was making an impact on people and they were receiving some value,” he said. “Now, Google Summer of Code is a wonderful opportunity to connect with open-source organizations and Open Library where its work directly impacts people’s lives.”
“This year’s collaboration is important because lots of patrons discover Open Library, but too often don’t always find the books they want,” Mek said.
The work begins when a patron lands on a book that is unavailable for reading. Soon, instead of reaching a dead end, patrons will be presented with nearby books on the same shelf that are available now.
When patrons find a relevant, available book, a simpler registration process will help them get started with fewer steps and return to the book they found. Furthermore, Sangwan is helping patrons connect with new book recommendations on an ongoing basis by introducing an activity feed to the account page.
“I like to hear about the patron psychology, how they’re interacting with the platform, and what’s going in their mind from the first moment to the very last,” he said. “We’ll be researching and conducting interviews with lost patrons so we can connect this bridge between patrons and the millions of books in our catalog.”
Chisom Nnamani
Nnamani, who already has certifications in Data Analytics and Data Engineering, just completed her sophomore year pursuing a second degree in Computer Science. At Open Library, Nnamani is leading a major cleanup effort to add structured tag data to books so they can be searched by genre and subgenre. Her work is paving the way for the addition of a wide variety of new searchable tags, including: moods, fiction and non-fiction, content warnings, and literary formats, such as memoirs, biographies, and more. By cleaning up messy data and enabling better genre and subject browsing, Chisom is helping remove barriers preventing patrons from discovering books they love.
“Today, many of our subject pages feel computer generated and can’t compare to the beautiful, curated experiences you find at small book stores,” says Mek. “The work Chisom is leading to map the messy subject tags we have to clear genres and subgenres will help us offer patrons a more useful and satisfying browsing experience.”
“I really care about books being accessible to people,” Nnamani said. “In Nigeria, we have limited access to physical libraries, so Open Library is something that matters. It gives everyone the opportunity to come and read any kind of book and gain insights.”
“This project is inspiring to me,” Nnamani said. “I like to work on projects where I can connect the data and infrastructure in ways that contribute to the organization’s goals. I enjoy helping to solve complex problems at the intersection of systems and data.”
Open Library Fellows work remotely, but meet regularly online with Internet Archive staff and mentors. At the end of the summer, each contributor will publish a blog post explaining their technical journey and experience gained.
Since 2005, Google’s Summer of Code has supported more than 23,000 students from 123 countries with stipends to receive mentorship and contribute 48 million lines of code to over 1,000 open source organizations worldwide.
Food is having a cultural moment. As America marks its 250th anniversary, new cookbooks celebrate endangered culinary traditions, UNESCO calls recipes “living heritage,” and chefs are rediscovering centuries-old techniques. But preserving food culture takes more than cooking—it takes preserving the books, handwritten recipes, community cookbooks, and stories that carry this knowledge from one generation to the next. That’s the focus of this week’s Future Knowledge episode with Katie Livingston.
Why preserve a cookbook? In the second episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with Katie Livingston, a doctoral researcher at Stanford University who studies domestic culture and women’s literature. Through the lens of family cookbooks, recipe collections, and food traditions, Katie explores why everyday cultural artifacts deserve preservation and what they can teach us about history, identity, and community.
From church cookbooks and handwritten recipe notes to the rise of food blogs, Katie explains how recipes capture regional traditions, social values, and forms of knowledge that are often overlooked by traditional preservation efforts. The conversation examines how domestic culture—particularly culture created and maintained by women—has historically been undervalued despite its importance as a record of lived experience. As cooking increasingly moves online, Katie also considers the risks of digital ephemerality and what may be lost when personal archives give way to disappearing websites and search-engine-driven recipes. Together, Vida and Katie explore how preserving food culture helps us preserve the stories, communities, and histories embedded within it.
Vanishing Culture is a special six-part series from the Future Knowledge podcast, produced by the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance, exploring what happens when our shared cultural heritage disappears, and what we can do to preserve it. View the full series.
The series is inspired by the Internet Archive’s new book, Vanishing Culture, a collection of essays by scholars, artists, librarians, and preservationists examining why culture disappears in the digital age, and what can be done to save it. Together, the book and podcast offer complementary perspectives on one of the defining challenges of our time: preserving humanity’s cultural record in an increasingly fragile digital world.
As more of our cultural heritage moves online, a troubling question is emerging: what happens when the things we create, share, and cherish simply disappear? In the first episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with researcher, book historian, and literary sociologist Luca Messarra, author of the Internet Archive’s Vanishing Culture report, about the growing threat of cultural loss in the digital age.
From disappearing websites and deleted social media archives to lost films, books, music, and video games, Luca explores why culture vanishes and why it matters. He explains how copyright law, corporate control of digital platforms, and the shift from ownership to licensing are making it harder for libraries, archives, and communities to preserve cultural memory. Along the way, he shares stories that illustrate both the fragility of our digital heritage and the importance of preserving it: from a favorite YouTube recipe rescued by the Wayback Machine to the role cultural artifacts play in memory and identity. The conversation wraps on a positive note, with a look toward solutions and what creators, libraries, and everyday citizens can do to help ensure culture remains accessible for generations to come.
Vanishing Culture is a special six-part series from the Future Knowledge podcast, produced by the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance, exploring what happens when our shared cultural heritage disappears, and what we can do to preserve it. View the full series.
The series is inspired by the Internet Archive’s new book, Vanishing Culture, a collection of essays by scholars, artists, librarians, and preservationists examining why culture disappears in the digital age, and what can be done to save it. Together, the book and podcast offer complementary perspectives on one of the defining challenges of our time: preserving humanity’s cultural record in an increasingly fragile digital world.
Vanishing Culture is a special six-part series from the Future Knowledge podcast, produced by the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance, exploring what happens when our shared cultural heritage disappears, and what we can do to preserve it.
Hosted by musician Vida Vojić, the series features conversations with researchers, archivists, librarians, and creators working to safeguard everything from cookbooks and queer archives to African folktales and endangered languages. Together, they examine how copyright, digital platforms, and changing technologies are reshaping our collective memory, while highlighting the communities finding new ways to keep culture alive. Through personal stories and global perspectives, Vanishing Culture reveals that preservation isn’t just about protecting the past, it’s about ensuring that future generations can access, understand, and build upon our shared cultural record.
The series is inspired by the Internet Archive’s new book, Vanishing Culture, a collection of essays by scholars, artists, librarians, and preservationists examining why culture disappears in the digital age, and what can be done to save it. Together, the book and podcast offer complementary perspectives on one of the defining challenges of our time: preserving humanity’s cultural record in an increasingly fragile digital world.
Vanishing Culture #1: What We Stand to Lose with Luca Messarra
As more of our cultural heritage moves online, a troubling question is emerging: what happens when the things we create, share, and cherish simply disappear? In the first episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with researcher, book historian, and literary sociologist Luca Messarra, author of the Internet Archive’s Vanishing Culture report, about the growing threat of cultural loss in the digital age.
From disappearing websites and deleted social media archives to lost films, books, music, and video games, Luca explores why culture vanishes and why it matters. He explains how copyright law, corporate control of digital platforms, and the shift from ownership to licensing are making it harder for libraries, archives, and communities to preserve cultural memory. Along the way, he shares stories that illustrate both the fragility of our digital heritage and the importance of preserving it—from a favorite YouTube recipe rescued by the Wayback Machine to the role cultural artifacts play in memory, identity, and human dignity. The conversation concludes with a look toward solutions and what creators, libraries, and everyday citizens can do to help ensure culture remains accessible for generations to come.
Vanishing Culture #2: The Stories Hidden in Cookbooks with Katie Livingston
Why preserve a cookbook? In the second episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with Katie Livingston, a doctoral researcher at Stanford University who studies domestic culture and women’s literature. Through the lens of family cookbooks, recipe collections, and food traditions, Katie explores why everyday cultural artifacts deserve preservation and what they can teach us about history, identity, and community.
From church cookbooks and handwritten recipe notes to the rise of food blogs, Katie explains how recipes capture regional traditions, social values, and forms of knowledge that are often overlooked by traditional preservation efforts. The conversation examines how domestic culture—particularly culture created and maintained by women—has historically been undervalued despite its importance as a record of lived experience. As cooking increasingly moves online, Katie also considers the risks of digital ephemerality and what may be lost when personal archives give way to disappearing websites and search-engine-driven recipes. Together, Vida and Katie explore how preserving food culture helps us preserve the stories, communities, and histories embedded within it.
Vanishing Culture #3: Saving Queer Memory with Brooke Palmieri
RELEASE DATE: JULY 15, 2026
Queer history has often been overlooked, erased, or excluded from traditional archives. In the third episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with writer, artist, and archivist Brooke Palmieri about the vital role queer archives play in preserving memory, identity, and community. Drawing on his work with CAMP BOOKS and his research into LGBTQ+ history, Brooke explores why archives matter—not just as collections of records, but as tools for helping people understand where they come from and imagine new futures.
The conversation traces how queer communities have built their own archives in response to historical exclusion from mainstream institutions, creating spaces where stories of love, activism, creativity, and survival can be preserved and shared. Brooke reflects on the power of community-led archiving, the opportunities digital platforms create for expanding access to queer history, and the challenges posed by disappearing information, online misinformation, and unequal access to cultural heritage. Together, Vida and Brooke explore how preserving queer archives helps ensure that marginalized histories remain visible, accessible, and available to future generations.
Vanishing Culture #4: Keeping African Folktales Alive with Helen Nde & Laura Gibbs
RELEASE DATE: JULY 22, 2026
Folktales are more than stories—they are living records of culture, identity, and collective memory. In the fourth episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with writer and researcher Helen Nde, founder of Mythological Africans, and folklorist Laura Gibbs about the importance of preserving African folklore in the digital age. Together, they explore how stories help communities understand themselves, pass down knowledge across generations, and make sense of a changing world.
The conversation examines the challenges of preserving oral traditions, from the distortions introduced by colonial collectors to the loss of context when dynamic storytelling practices are reduced to written records. Helen and Laura discuss how digitization can help make folklore more accessible and discoverable, while also opening new possibilities for communities to share and reinterpret their stories online. They also reflect on the importance of trustworthy archives in an era when myths and historical narratives are increasingly used to shape political and cultural identities. Ultimately, the episode asks what it will take to ensure that these rich storytelling traditions remain available—not as relics of the past, but as living resources for future generations.
Vanishing Culture #5: A Language Worth Saving with Peter Scholing
RELEASE DATE: JULY 29, 2026
Languages can vanish just as easily as books, websites, or archives—and when they do, entire ways of understanding the world can disappear with them. In the fifth episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, host Vida Vojić speaks with Peter Scholing of Biblioteca Nacional Aruba and the Coleccion Aruba digital heritage platform about the importance of preserving Papiamento, Aruba’s creole language, and the cultural heritage it carries.
Peter shares the story of how Aruba’s libraries, archives, and cultural institutions came together to build a digital collection that now preserves hundreds of thousands of documents, photographs, newspapers, recordings, and books. The conversation explores the unique preservation challenges facing island communities, from geographic isolation and climate risks to the legacy of colonialism, which has scattered much of Aruba’s historical record across multiple countries and languages. Peter explains why expanding access to materials in Papiamento is essential for education, cultural identity, and historical understanding, and how digitization is helping unlock previously inaccessible collections. Looking ahead, he discusses the opportunities new technologies offer for smaller languages and why ensuring a vibrant digital future for Papiamento is a crucial part of preserving Aruba’s culture for generations to come.
Vanishing Culture #6: What We’ve Learned with Vida Vojić & Alice Bridgwood
RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 6, 2026
What does it mean to preserve culture in an age of disappearing websites, platform-controlled media, and fragile digital memories? In the final episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture, Future Knowledge hosts Dave Hansen and Chris Freeland sit down with musician and series host Vida Vojić and producer Alice Bridgwood to reflect on the conversations, ideas, and lessons that emerged throughout the series.
Looking back on discussions about cookbooks, queer archives, African folklore, Papiamento, and more, Vida and Alice explore the common threads connecting seemingly disparate forms of cultural preservation. They reflect on how culture is shaped not only by institutions, but by communities and individuals who choose what to remember, share, and pass on. The conversation examines the challenges of living in an “age of platforms,” the risks of relying on technology and corporations to steward cultural memory, and the growing movement toward community-driven preservation efforts. Along the way, the group discusses what surprised them most, how the series changed their own habits and perspectives, and why they remain hopeful that people everywhere can play an active role in keeping culture alive. Rather than ending on a note of loss, the episode offers a hopeful reminder that culture survives when people care enough to preserve, share, and reimagine it together.
About the Future Knowledge podcast
Future Knowledge explores the intersection of technology, culture, and information policy with leading authors, scholars, and experts. From copyright and open access to AI and digital preservation, we discuss the big issues shaping knowledge and creativity in the digital age. Future Knowledge is brought to you by the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance.
On June 9, the Internet Archive welcomed film lovers, public domain enthusiasts, and fashionably dressed guests for an evening celebrating one of cinema’s enduring classics: Morocco (1930).
Our “Top Hat & Tails” screening marked the film’s first year in the public domain, bringing nearly a century-old story to a new generation of viewers. Guests embraced the spirit of the evening by arriving in everything from classic tuxedos and evening gowns to playful reinterpretations of Marlene Dietrich’s legendary look.
Browse event photos:
The evening began with an introduction from filmmaker, writer, and curator Denah Johnston, placing the film in the context of Pre-Code Hollywood and exploring why Morocco remains such an enduring work. Johnston highlighted the film’s artistic legacy, its groundbreaking approach to gender expression, and the cultural significance of Dietrich’s iconic tuxedo performance, culminating in one of the earliest same-gender kisses in mainstream cinema.
Watch Denah’s intro:
Following the screening, Johnston joined attendees for a Q&A that explored the film’s production, Dietrich’s career, the evolution of queer representation on screen, and the importance of preserving and providing access to public domain films.
Watch the Q&A:
Missed the event? You can still watch Morocco for free on the Internet Archive and experience one of the defining films of the Pre-Code era for yourself. As long as we preserve our cultural heritage—and keep it accessible—these remarkable works will continue finding new audiences for generations to come.
For nearly 30 years, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has helped preserve the public record.
It has captured more than 1 trillion web pages, documented history in real time, and ensured that journalists, researchers, historians, librarians, and the public can continue to access reporting long after stories are published. From breaking news and investigative journalism to local reporting and public statements, the Wayback Machine has become essential infrastructure for the public’s ability to preserve online news and culture.
Now, that preservation work is under threat.
As reported by Nieman Lab and WIRED, some publishers are blocking the Wayback Machine from preserving their reporting. As a result, some of the most important journalism being produced today may no longer be independently archived for future generations. For details on the publisher blocking, check out our FAQ: Publishers Blocking the Wayback Machine.
In response to these blocks, Fight for the Future has launched an open lettercalling on major media organizations to work with the Internet Archive to ensure the news remains preserved and accessible in the Wayback Machine.
The letter argues that preserving journalism is not only about access today, but about protecting the historical record itself:
“The freedom of journalists isn’t only the freedom to write, it’s also the freedom to have your work read and remembered for generations to come.”
At a moment when misinformation spreads rapidly, links disappear, websites change, and pressure to alter or erase reporting continues to grow, independent web preservation matters more than ever. The Wayback Machine helps make journalism more resilient by ensuring published reporting can still be referenced, verified, and studied years later.
The campaign also highlights a growing contradiction: while many publishers rely on the Wayback Machine for reporting, research, and fact-checking, some are simultaneously preventing their own journalism from being preserved.
The Internet Archive has long worked collaboratively with publishers and respects requests around access and preservation. The Wayback Machine has been designed for preservation: helping ensure that the historical record of the web is not lost.
If you believe journalism should remain accessible to historians, researchers, educators, and future generations, we encourage you to add your name to the letter.
As publishers block the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for unfounded concerns over AI scraping, hundreds of journalists have signed a public letter supporting the Wayback Machine and the importance of preserving the online historical record. Below, Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, shares a message of thanks to the journalism community for standing up for web preservation, accountability, and access to the public record.
Journalists who would like to add their names can sign the letter here, and members of the public can sign the broader support letter here.
Dear colleagues,
On behalf of all of us at the Internet Archive, I want to thank you.
For thirty years, the Wayback Machine has worked in the background, preserving more than 1 trillion web pages so that reporting doesn’t simply vanish with the next site redesign or corporate decision. Today, more than 100 news articles every month reference, cite, or rely on material preserved by the Wayback Machine to verify claims, recover deleted information, or provide historical context.
Where previous generations could walk into a newsroom morgue or a local library archive, today’s journalists increasingly rely on digital preservation to trace accountability and verify claims that might otherwise be lost. When a source disappears, when a statement is rewritten, when a page is taken down, the ability to recover that record is not a luxury.
The stakes are not hypothetical. A Pew Research Center study from 2024 found that 38% of webpages from a decade ago are no longer accessible, and about 25% of pages sampled across the decade have disappeared entirely. But that’s not the whole story. New analysis by Internet Archive data scientist Sawood Alam found that the Wayback Machine has rescued roughly 15% of those otherwise lost pages, preserving reporting and historical evidence that would simply no longer exist online.
We are especially grateful that you recognized the care with which we approach this work. We are your partners in preservation. We build systems designed for people, not bulk extraction; we monitor our services to manage abusive access; and we actively collaborate with publishers and newsrooms to ensure their work is preserved with integrity.
Importantly, recent reporting has also underscored a key reality of this debate. As journalist Andrew Deck reported in Marketplace Tech, many publishers blocking the Wayback Machine appear to be acting preemptively out of concern over AI scraping rather than evidence of misuse. “None of the publishers were able to point to a particular AI company or other kinds of direct evidence that their content had already been scraped by the Wayback Machine,” Deck wrote.
At a time when the pressures on journalism are mounting—from economic shifts to the rapid evolution of AI—your support sends a clear message: preserving the public record is not optional. It is essential infrastructure for a functioning democracy.
We remain committed to the important task of preserving the web. And we are deeply encouraged to know that so many of you stand with us in defending that work.
With gratitude,
Mark Graham Director, Wayback Machine Internet Archive
Before feeds, before algorithms, there was the Class of 1996: websites & organizations founded (or expanded) in 1996, like the Internet Archive.
On the occasion of the Internet Archive’s 30th anniversary, we’re opening the internet’s yearbook to celebrate the sites, services & scrappy experiments that helped shape the web as we know it. From class leaders like Center for Democracy and Technology to cultural icons like The Onion to the archivists making sure none of it disappears, this is a reunion worth attending.
Some are still thriving. Some have changed beyond recognition. Some are already gone. All of them remind us: the early web wasn’t just built, it was lived in.
THE MORE YOU KNOW: Did you know that some publishers are blocking the Wayback Machine from archiving their sites, putting decades of reporting and cultural history at risk of disappearing from the public record? If the web’s past matters — and the Class of 1996 reminds us that it does — now is the time to speak up. Add your name to the petition calling on publishers to stop blocking the Wayback Machine and help ensure the internet’s history remains accessible for future generations.
Class of 1996
Class President — Center for Democracy and Technology
The Center for Democracy and Technology didn’t just show up—they helped write the rules of the internet. And 30 years later, they’re still fighting to keep it open.
Thirty years ago, Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive with an ambitious goal: Universal Access to All Knowledge. Today, that mission continues to grow with an exciting new chapter: the launch of the Internet Archive Switzerland, a non-profit foundation based in St. Gallen.
The Internet Archive Switzerland, online at https://internetarchive.ch/, is a newly-formed Swiss non-profit foundation that will operate independently within its national context. Its efforts will initially focus on preserving endangered archives from around the world and collecting the generative AI wave that is currently upon us all. With a UNESCO conference planned for November 2026 in Paris, Internet Archive Switzerland is taking a concrete step to explore how endangered archives can be protected.
In parallel, the Swiss foundation is working in partnership with the School of Computer Science at the University of St. Gallen, on the Gen AI Archive project led by Prof. Dr. Damian Borth. Together, they aim to begin archiving AI models, which is an emerging frontier for preservation.
The choice of St. Gallen is no coincidence. With a thousand-year tradition of archiving and scholarship, the city offers a fitting home for this next phase of digital preservation. Its strong academic environment—including collaboration with the University of St. Gallen—makes it an ideal place to establish a 21st century memory organization.
“St. Gallen is a very suitable place to take the preservation of our universal knowledge a step further. Stability and innovation go hand in hand here and are embedded in a deep understanding of the importance of cultural heritage,” said Roman Griesfelder, the executive director of Internet Archive Switzerland.
Internet Archive Switzerland joins a growing group of mission-aligned organizations, alongside Internet Archive, Internet Archive Canada, and Internet Archive Europe. Together, these independent libraries strengthen a shared vision: building a distributed, resilient digital library for the world.
Contact Internet Archive Switzerland Roman Griesfelder, executive director office@internetarchive.ch
