Fascinating and important. A physical space and representation of the digital archiving they do, including Internet webpages but also all media and publications imaginable. Think of it more like a digitized library, and the importance of libraries in our society, what they ultimately convey and symbolize. Knowledge and access to knowledge. Like I said, the scale and scope here is important and fascinating. I highly suggest one of their Friday 1pm tours. If you or someone you know has interest in knowledge, or in other words, interest in literally anything, it's a neat time. read more

Internet Archive - Libraries Near Me - San Francisco, California

It's absolutely amazing to be in the same city as THE Internet Archive. If you don't know what it is, it's a non-profit organization that has been archiving pretty much EVERY SINGLE piece of both digital and print media -- whether it's a webpage, games that work only on MS-DOS, music, even cultural artifacts -- since the Internet was born. If you've ever used the Way Back machine to play the Oregon trail online or to look up what a website looked like in 1998, then you've used the Internet Archive. It's probably one of the most impressive and incredible FREE public service we have in the world that is *literally* run on good will, donations, and on the principle that access to information should always be free. We took a tour here on Friday when they do free tours (usually around 1PM) and you get to see the behind the scenes of how they archive works and some of the original servers that host ALL the data the year 1997 (yes, ALL 2-TB of it!!). The building alone is beautiful architecturally -- it used to be a Christian Scientist church -- and they still kept the pews in the main room, so it's a cool piece of history to step into. If you're free in a Friday afternoon in the Inner Richmond, highly HIGHLY recommend doing the tour and supporting (or donating) this wonderful institution. This is definitely one of the most underrated places in SF! read more

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Hey uhhhh, is this where they keep the internet? We had a whole lot of jokes coming over here. Came out to hear an author speak and it was here. Silly me never noticed the sign driving by and thought it was a religious establishment. Upon entering there is a framed picture of a cat because obviously cats belong in the internet archive. The gathering space is beautiful! They left all the church stuff behind, minus the religious imagery. Never seen a church before with the gathering space on the second floor, but it was cool. The green glass dome above is also something to see. There is lots more they do on the inter webs, which you should check out on their website. If you get a chance to visit tho, it's a gorgeous space. read more

Have you ever heard of the famed Library of Alexandria of the ancient world? It was a daring effort to centralize all the knowledge of Western Civilization by gathering its physical writings, beginning with the Greeks. As a digital library, the Internet Archive is its modern incarnation, and you can access what they have from the comfort of your own home. Search on line for books and other media that may be unavailable anywhere else and it just might be here. Contribute materials that they can legally include, or support them financially with what you can afford, and you'll be helping to make history. read more

This is such a beautiful venue and space for learning. I was lucky enough to attend the intersection of art and technology demos. The golden hour was such a vibe through the space because of the windows and architecture. They have tours for free on Fridays at 1 and i'll have to follow up on that. Overall, wonderful place to experience read more

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Friday's guided tour is a must. 1:15pm of each week. Only once a week. The young man will tell you lot of things about Internet Archive. He is very nice too read more

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We are lucky to have this amazing institution in our city. Take the free tour and learn about all the amazing things they are doing to preserve the history of the Internet and free, unfettered information. read more

They perform the archiving of important documents online daily, an essential service for accountability across the spectrum of institutions, services, etc. read more

This is a wonderful facility that offers great ongoing free help from knowledgeable and generous librarians. They consistently do excellent work! read more

If this is not the coolest place, I don't know what is! I am a huge believer in universal access to open knowledge and have been a fan of the Wayback Machine as long as I can remember. When one of my colleagues told me that the Internet Archive offered public tours, I couldn't even believe it. I almost jumped for joy when people at my work decided to visit as a group for a small field trip. So I came with two colleagues of mine and two of our interns for the first time in 2017. The founder and digital librarian (I like the nice ring to it) Brewster Kahle himself led a very informative tour. We got to learn about the history of this remarkable non-profit and many cool projects that'd made a big difference on the world we live in. We also got to eat a delicious meal with all the Internet Archive employees (oh those baked BBQ portobello mushrooms!!!) and sit in their weekly staff meeting. I was taking pictures non-stop and totally fangirling like crazy! Last week, I came to the Internet Archive again for their world night market annual bash which was a very well organized fabulous fun-filled fundraising event. There were food trucks, live music, demo booths, official programs, dessert, and a dance party afterwards. I got to learn some of the most amazing partnerships the Internet Archive has been building with Wikipedia, Better World Books, the Philips Academy Andover among others. The Internet Archive is currently working on recording radio station programs worldwide and making them archived and searchable for research. If you told me someone wanted to preserve the entire human knowledge and archive the World Wide Wed as a whole, I'd have told you this person was crazy. BUT the truth is that it is possible because this is exactly what Brewster Kahle and his Internet Archive team are doing. On a side-note, apparently you get a little replica statue of yourself in the main hall if you work for this place for 3 and more years. Now I am seriously thinking about changing jobs!! Internet Archive, dream BIG and prosper!!! read more

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The building is awesome. It's fun to hang out at Internet Archive. I went to the Aaron Schwartz Hackathon and they had some presentations..a conference. The website is fun to play with. I saw Brewster. They have snacks in the kitchen. You can volunteer. I'd come back. On Funston and Clement. read more

This is a unique site that impacts everyone in research. Keeping the World Wide Web honest is a project of massive proportions.

The Internet Archive is a fascinating virtual library. Its founder, Brewster Kahle, has taken it upon himself to archive internet ephemera, and while he's the Internet librarian, he's not going to grouchily shush you. He's been interviewed on KQED's Forum, he's a personable guy, and genuine tech genius. One need only think of old, if not ancient, lost media, from Theda Bara's legendary "Cleopatra" (now only mere seconds of it remain), the remainder of Aristotle's "Poetics", the stolen paintings from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Internet Archive is where you can resurrect seemingly defunct blogs- http://web.archive.org/web/20130505090956/http://realcatholicloveandsex.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-honeymoon-series-part-11-can-we.html http://web.archive.org/web/20140205184042/http://realcatholicloveandsex.com/2014/02/05/church-teach/ It's taken some exhaustive (and exhausting) work. Appropriate the Internet Archive is housed in a former Christian Science Church (Christian Science Reading Rooms are considered sacred, so again, appropriate) On Lost Media Chronicles, "Shoegazer Productions" discusses the importance of lost internet media, using the example of Zen Hex- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyb-I26Ixt8 The Internet Archive is notable for its Grateful Dead archive, so Brewster Kahle is an Estimated Prophet- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JX8v1sX2uk The Internet Archive is extensive- not only do they have defunct blogs, but movies, books, music, video games. An awe-inspiring virtual library. read more

I remember using the Wayback machine quite some time ago, and a recent New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/cobweb) revived my interest in the Internet Archive when I read that they have a physical location, and you can tour it for FREE! They don't advertise it anywhere on their website, but they indeed have tours every Friday at 1 pm. The only other place I could find this verified was Yelp, so I called them, and they verified as well. My penultimate visit to San Francisco, I had intended to go, but I wasn't going to be there on a Friday. Serendipitously, we drove past it while in SF, and when I saw it, I immediately knew--that must be it! My next visit to SF, I was sure to visit. Until you go through the front door, you're not sure if you're in the right place--the building is an old church with a small "Internet Archive" on the corner. When you get inside, though, it is immistakable that you are in the right place. You can watch them digitize old video films, have a peek at their book scanner, play on their videogame emulator, or listen to music at their music library nook. At 1:00, Brewster, the tour guide, greets each guest with a handshake and tells you enthusiastically about the history, culture, and future of the internet archive. What I think many of the people on the tour didn't realize is that Brewster founded Alexa, which was bought by Amazon for $250 million, as well as the Internet Archive, so for all intents and purposes, he is a tech rockstar; yet he proceeds with the tour very humbly. The current Internet Archive building used to be a Christian Science church, and they haven't changed much in the layout. He shows us a group of a half dozen people who are digitizing CDs one-by-one behind the church pews, and flanking them are two server stacks which, combined, hold a fifth of the master copy of the Internet Archive. It's amazing how a copy of the WHOLE INTERNET (actually multiple copies if you count that the archive saves multiple versions of websites over time) and all sorts of other stuff (the archive is now continually archiving the 24/7 feeds of several TV channels, endlessly digitizing books, and saving other content) can fit in such a compact space. We also got to have a peek in the offices that are set up just as you would expect for a tech organization with open workspaces, bottles of Sriracha sauce on desks, and couches abound. If you have even the slightest interest in all things geeky, then do yourself a favor, and head over to the Internet Archive one Friday afternoon. read more

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The internet is hella serious. This building demonstrates the awesomeness. The good people at the Internet Archive are do gooders. If you've ever used the Wayback Machine, then you know some of the good they have done. One of the other things that I think is really cool is their archiving of as much as possible. That's bad assed do-gooding right there. A few times I've gotten bored and clicked on there to watch some old timey PSA films. You gotta love those- even if they're totally dated. But that's what I love about having this in a digital archive. We can see what the past was like and compare it to how we have/have not progressed since then. read more

Love the classic building, awesome staff (Brewster, June, Alexis, & Ralf et. al.) and mission. My fav is the large area with all the 3 ft statues of the 99 staff standing in pews looking at the stage. Kudos to the artist(s)! read more

Internet Archive - Libraries Near Me - San Francisco, California

Great Friday lunches that function as both staff meetings and outreach to tourists, students, and nerds in the area. Probably also the coolest, techiest nonprofit in existence. read more

Love the wayback machine. Great to see old version of things on the Internet. Internet history is important too!

Damn what a cool website! This site is chock full of old short films of fascinating or notorious quality. You can learn to "Duck and Cover" with a smiling turtle for example or watch a silent film shot in SF after the 1906 quake and fire. You can watch great classic films on "social guidance" that are either hilarious (What to do on a date, Body Care and Grooming) or deeply disturbing (such as the homophobic Boys Beware). Other great shorts are on the digging in of the BART trains in the 1960s. They also have a "wayback" machine that lets you type in a web address and they take you back to what the website looked like the past. Perfect if you're a history-tech geek like me! Watch the movies as streaming or download them if you have the bandwidth. www.archive.org awesome site! A great time waster when you're at wor ... I mean, home! :-) Wear headphones though if you don't want to be heard as the movies of course have sound. read more

I'd like to thank the Internet Archive and their Wayback Machine for archiving the internet. 3 months ago I upgraded my cell plan and got a new phone with VZ. I was supposed to get a $15 discount on the plan, this never happened because the rep didn't upgrade my plan. Needless to say, when the phone rep told me tonight I wasn't illegible for the discount, I got very angry. I threw out the terms unjust business practices, unjust enrichment, detrimental reliance, and misrepresentation, and then I went to the Wayback Machine to July 2015 and showed the rep the plan that I was supposed to have gotten. I now have the discount. THANK YOU INTERNET ARCHIVE AND WAYBACK MACHINE, YOU SAVED THE DAY!!!!!!!!! read more