Category Archives: Audio Archive

An Old-fashioned Book Drive! Please help make the Open Library Book collection even bigger.

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Internet ArchiveFrom Open Library:

The Internet Archive has been scanning books for some years now, and we’re always looking for more. In addition to 1,000,000+ eBooks available to anyone available through Open Library, we’ve announced the release of modern books for the print-disabled community in a special format called DAISY. It’s a brand new collection – one of the largest available online. For too long, print-disabled people have been denied access to the full breadth of contemporary books, and we’d like to assist in tipping that balance back to where it should be, universal access for all readers.

We are sponsoring the scanning of the first 10,000 books

Please help us by donating books to be scanned or with financial support for the scanning process. Based on existing foundation funding, we are sponsoring the scanning of the first 10,000 books that are donated in this Book Drive. We’re looking for wonderful and important books for this first 10,000 and even more books and money to keep it going. We will make these digital books as available to the world as we can, including the print-disabled, and will preserve the physical book for the long term.

How Does The Book Drive Work?

You can simply send up to 100 books or drop them off in person at our headquarters:

Internet Archive Book Drive
300 Funston Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

If you’d like to make a donation of more than 100 books, wow! That would be wonderful, but please give us a call on +1 415-561-6767 to arrange shipping and handling.

We’d like to recognize the generosity of everyone that donates a book to the book drive. It is simplest for us to do this if you include an “Ex Libris” bookplate inside the front cover of each book you donate. That way, when we scan your donation, we will simply photograph your bookplate. This will become part of the permanent digitized version of your donation.

For additional information: http://openlibrary.org/bookdrive

St. Patrick's Day at the Archive

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Let’s see what we’ve got for St. Patrick’s Day on the servers…..

Newsreel of the huge parade in New York City in 1939 (with some other interesting news of the day).
A tune featuring bagpipe and fiddle
A breathtaking image of Blarney Castle
And the obligatory St. Patrick’s Day screen saver featuring green beer and shamrocks
And I’ll close with an acoustic punk song “Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong”

I’m thirsty….

-Jeff Kaplan

Economic Crisis and the President's Response

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On today’s date in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his radio “fireside chats,” telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation’s economic crisis.

Searching the Internet archive I found an audio file in the Old Time Radio section of that first fireside chat at: http://www.archive.org/details/1stFiresideChat193. Short and to the point with forthright honesty at 2:05-2:13.

We also have a number of movie clips of subsequent Fireside chats at: http://www.archive.org/details/WorldHistoryFranklinD.Roosevelt-SixFiresideChats1933-1938.

“It is your problem, my friend, your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.”

-Jeff Kaplan

Alice In Wonderland…a look back

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Twas Brillig!

With a yet another new version of Alice In Wonderland being released today in a theater near you, I thought I’d take a look back in the Internet Archive to see what we have.

Here is the first movie version from 1903: http://www.archive.org/details/Alice_in_Wonderland_1903

I liked this one a bit better: http://www.archive.org/details/AliceInWonderland1915_503. That’s one angry looking white rabbit.

Of course we have many texts. I enjoyed this one with the pen and ink drawings dispersed throughout: http://www.archive.org/stream/alicesadventwond00carrrich#page/n5/mode/2up

And if you have the time but don’t want to read, you might enjoy this reading by author Cory Doctorow: http://www.archive.org/details/AliceInWonderlandReadByCoryDoctorow

Last, here’s a live version of White Rabbit by Irish performer Cara Cowan: http://www.archive.org/details/BandwidthFilmsCaraCowan-WhiteRabbit_JeffersonAirplane_Part2of2_   white rabbit

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’

It’s down the rabbit hole for me….
– Jeff Kaplan

Superbowl and New Orleans

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OK, I confess I was more interested in seeing if Pete Townshend would do some windmill leaps and trash his guitar at the end of their halftime show.

Still I thought I’d check up on some stuff about New Orleans at the archive.org

I first took a look at the space view of the Crescent City from NASAimages: http://www.archive.org/details/VE-IMG-17299

Then to set the mood put on a little music from The Radiators: http://www.archive.org/details/rads2010-01-02

And read a little of this old text from 1914: New Orleans Old and New: http://www.archive.org/details/neworleansoldnew00alle

From it I learned that Carnival season started in 1827. Here’s a slightly more recent view of Mardi Gras from 1941: http://www.archive.org/details/Paradeof1941

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints and all the people in the Crescent City.

-Jeff Kaplan

Unemployment Rate Jitters

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With the unemployment rate so high, cafes here in
San Francisco are extra busy with folks killing time, camping out at the tables nursing their one cup of coffee while online. Here’s a good old one for them to check out: http://www.archive.org/details/ThisisCo1961

Of course a little coffee overindulgence might lead to: http://www.archive.org/details/Brian_Wyrick_Sleep

That ending reminded me of Luis Bunuel’s Andalusian Dog. Youch! Speaking of surreal…if you should fall asleep: http://www.archive.org/details/TribuneA1924

So combine stimulants with driving and you get the Grateful Dead with  “Casey Jones”: http://www.archive.org/details/gd70-08-30.fm.jupile.12762.sbeok.shnf

Time for a cup o’ joe! Excuse me while I go get a lo-fo-half-caf-half-decaf-mochachino or better yet maybe just a good cup of drip! -Jeff Kaplan

Black History Month and Famous Banjos

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I found this radio interview with Rosa Parks just 4 months after she refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, AL. Her interview goes from 12:39-18:50. http://www.archive.org/details/dn2005-1025_vid

And here is an interview from the 1957 with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.archive.org/details/openmind_ep727.

Which naturally caused me to search for Dr. Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech from the rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Here is the audio recording of that speech: http://www.archive.org/details/MLKDream

I remembered that Pete Seeger performed at that rally. So I discovered this short video of Pete Seeger discussing how Dr. King and Rosa Parks inspired him. http://www.archive.org/details/HowDr.KingAndRosaParksInspiredFolkLegendPeteSeeger.

Notice the skin head on his banjo. It was on his banjo for over 35 years and is famous among banjo players and folk enthusiasts. On it are written these words “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender”.  Seeger recently put it up for auction on eBay to donate the funds for earthquake relief for Haiti. With the bid over $6,000, and expected to go much higher, he reluctantly withdrew it at the insistence of his family in order to donate it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Instead he is raising funds for Haiti through donations.  -Jeff Kaplan

Images on the Live Music Archive!

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A note from the forums…

Hi there,

We want to encourage all of you to attach any image files you may have to the live shows you upload. A good photo of a band playing can really enhance an item; although the recordings are certainly the most important part, it’s always fun to see the band playing.

Here are some examples of items that are rounded out with interesting images:

  • A Trampled by Turtles show with images from the show attached
  • A Yonder Mountain String Band show with a photo of the ticket stub attached
  • A John Mayer show with a photo of the cover of the CD which was made from the show
  • A Mountain Goats show with a photo of John Darnielle attached

    • Please add photos you may have to update your shows and make the Live Music Archive that much more exciting 🙂

    Thanks for all you do to contribute to archive.org!

    Best,
    Cara

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    Audio and Video improvements

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    Hi Patrons,

    Yesterday we made live a large update to the way we create the audio and video displayed on our site.  Most folks might not notice the changes, so here’s a rundown:

    For Audio:

    • We can now read and make mp3s from 24-bit Flac files. This has been requested for many years and we are thrilled to get it working.
    • The Ogg audio files that we create from audio files will now be using an updated “libvorbis” library.  (The library we were using before today was from 2001! 😎 )
    • We are no longer making 64kb MP3s (or zips or m3u playlists of those files).  This was a judgement call — given how poor the sound quality is for these files and the fact that most people are getting more and more bandwidth to their devices and computers.
    • Simplified back-end system, relying more and more on “ffmpeg” for format conversion.
    • We will now (try to) make derivatives from “.aac” (Advanced Audio Coding) files and “.ra”/”.rm” (Real Audio) files.
    • General ability to read more kinds of audio files more reliably.

    For Movies:

    • The Ogg Video files that we create from movies files will now be using an updated “libvorbis” library for their audio.  (Previously we were using the “non reference” library ogg encoder.  Now we are using the much asked for and newer “libvorbis” library).
    • Updated ffmpeg to v0.5. This allows for a much wider range of source audio/video containers and codecs.  We will be able to derive HD-quality video formats like DV-50 and DV-100.   (For those interested in ffmpeg, changelog).
    • Better detection of widescreen movies (so less of our movies on our site will incorrectly appear “squooshed”).
    • General ability to read more kinds of video files more reliably.
    • Noting the prior point, we were able to get streaming videos for about 170 TV archive items that we could not process previously.

    Enjoy!

    –Tracey Jaquith

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