Democracy's Library @ the Internet Archive | Library and archives leader | People at the center of all I do; DEI advocate and practitioner.
Oakland, CA, USA
Joined September 2007
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I have been learning the history and evolution of the US Census, the only government documents specified in the Constitution.
Explore our historic collection of US Census documents, just one of the offerings freely available in Democracy's Library!
blog.archive.org/2026/10/12/…
ALT Image from the scanned 1930 U.S. Census, a handwritten enumeration sheet with details recorded by Census workers.
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
Preserving government information takes sustained collaboration. 🤝 The Internet Archive’s new report from the Information Stewardship Forum shares what 120 participants learned, discussed, and began building together.
The report is now available, with a clear reminder that preservation and public access are stronger when we work in community. 📚
Learn more 👉 blog.archive.org/2026/10/06/…
#democracyslibrary @InternetArchive
ALT Information Stewardship Forum 2026 cover with red and blue dot and line graphic, Internet Archive
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
Public records help us understand how government works. Preserving them helps keep that record accessible. 🏛️
As part of ALA Round Tables, Merrilee Proffitt & Kelly Doyle Kim will discuss Democracy’s Library and ATLAS during “Saving Democracy, One Public Record at a Time.”
🆓 No registration required.
⏰ 10:45 AM–12 PM PT / 1:45–3p ET
📡▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@ALAGameRT
📡🎮 Twitch: twitch.tv/ALAGameRT
Learn more 👉 games.ala.org/everything-is-…
@MerrileeIAm #DemocracysLibrary
ALT Poster for ALA’s Everything Is On Fire Spectacular, Oct 16, beside text about an FMRT & IFRT session
Great news for state / local government and digital preservation. Best of all we are building a community around this work! I will be touching on this in my presentation for the Federal Depository Library Conference tomorrow! #DemocracysLibrary
Government records are part of the public record, but digital information can be difficult to preserve, find, and use.
The Internet Archive has received an IMLS grant to develop ATLAS, a national program supporting preservation and access to local and state government information. The project will train 100 government and partner institutions and build new resources for the field.
Learn more 👉 blog.archive.org/2026/09/10/…
ALT Logo of the Institute of Museum Library Services.
Beginning in January 2025, we witnessed an unprecedented removal of material from U.S. federal websites — public documents gone from public view almost overnight.
I've written about the End of Term Archive and it's importance for Democracy's Library. 👇
blog.archive.org/2026/08/24/…
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
We've been getting a lot of questions lately about how the Internet Archive digitizes books.
The short answer: page by page, by hand.
You may remember our viral 2021 video of Eliza Zhang scanning a book. That's still how we do it.
Meet Eliza, and learn how we scan books: blog.archive.org/2021/02/09/…
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
Builders: here’s a chance to make something new from a massive public archive.
Internet Archive Canada @internetarcCA is offering a $5,000 fellowship to build new tools using 22M+ pages of open Canadian government publications.
Applications close Aug. 21 → bc-ai.ca/fellowship
ALT The public record is huge. Make it do something weird and useful.
Help build on collections in Democracy's Library, create something new and cool based on Canadian gov publications. Apply for the the AI Builders Fellowship a $5,000 award for anyone,to spend six weeks turning a massive public archive into something new. internetarchivecanada.org/20…
Please join! Really looking forward to this conversation and talking about Democracy's Library!
This quoted post is unavailable.
My presentation on Democracy's Library at the
@internetarchive from the Spring @cni_org
meeting is now available! If you want to learn more about my work, I'm the first 15 minutes of this recording.
youtube.com/watch?v=9--ueeR7…
Oh hi it's me!
🧵 1/3 As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, it's worth asking: What does democracy require of us when it comes to preserving public knowledge?
Join us for THE FIGHT FOR THE PUBLIC RECORD, a LIVE Future Knowledge #podcast recording exploring who preserves the public record…and what happens when it disappears. 🕳️
📅 Tues, Jun 23
🕙 10AM PT
📍ONLINE
🎟️ eventbrite.com/e/the-fight-f…
ALT Promotional banner for "The Fight for the Public Record," a Future Knowledge podcast live recording on June 23rd, 10am PT / 1pm ET, online. Features headshots of guests Merrilee Proffitt, James Jacobs, and Christopher Marcum alongside the Future Knowledge podcast cover art and Internet Archive and Authors Alliance logos.
Check out my latest article: Information Stewardship Forum: News from the Government Information Space, May 11, 2026 linkedin.com/pulse/informati… via @LinkedIn
Democracy's Library in the works! Thanks to our hardworking scanners.
It's microfiche in the digital era 📄💻
Want to see how microfiche is preserved digitally? You can!
Check out the Democracy’s Library #livestream, 7:30 AM–Midnight PT, scanning & preserving public records in real time — all to mellow #lofi vibes.
📡 youtube.com/watch?v=wG9hiWSr…
#LiveNow
ALT Maeve Iwasaki demonstrates microfiche digitization. Photo by Brad Shirakawa, October 21, 2025.
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
RIP Ask Jeeves. The natural-language search engine founded in 1996 was rebranded as Ask in 2006, and officially shut down on May 1.
Here are the Wayback Machine’s first and last captures of the site.
When websites disappear, the historical record can disappear with them. The @WaybackMachine preserves that history – capturing the web so its past remains accessible.
Explore 30 years of web history: web.archive.org
#90s #90sNostalgia #WebHistory #WebDesign
ALT Image with text at the top that reads: "Wayback Machine Then and Gone" then "askjeeves.com / ask.com". Below are Wayback Machine captures of the websites from December 19, 1996 and May 3, 2026; the latter signaling the end of the service.
On 1 May, it is my pleasure to join James Jacobs (US Government Information Librarian, Stanford University) for a discussion about the Preservation of Government Information Call to Action publicinformationtrust.org
All welcome! Registration & more godort.libguides.com/fridayc…
#govinfo
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
The arguments behind every landmark Supreme Court ruling have never been freely available to the public… until now.
Thanks to a gift from the Wolf Law Library at William & Mary Law School, more than 125,000 #SCOTUS records & briefs are now freely freely available on the Internet Archive, spanning 1830 through 2019. The arguments that shaped America, including Brown v. Board of Education. Loving v. Virginia.
Read the full announcement ⤵️
blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/…
@WMLawSchool #SupremeCourt #DemocracysLibrary
ALT The official seal of the United States Supreme Court, featuring a circular design with the words “Supreme Court of the United States” surrounding a central emblem of a balanced scale of justice and a laurel wreath, symbolizing law, authority, and fairness.
ALT Monogram of William & Mary Law School featuring a white intertwined “W&M” topped by a crown, referencing the university’s royal charter.
Excited to share that we've made a collection of Supreme Court Records and Briefs available via @internetarchive . I've written a blog post where I go into more detail about the importance of this collection.
blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/…
Government information should be freely available to all, but that is not always the case. I'm proud that we are doing our part to change this, especially for a body of materials that is of such high interest in the US context & beyond. This is what is behind Democracy's Library.
Thank you Wolf Law Library for bringing this collection to us and to Leslie Street for generous coaching and to @FreeLawProject for excellent metadata!
Merrilee Proffitt retweeted
Destroying the @InternetArchive's @WayBackMachine would be the equivalent of the burning of the Library of Alexandria - one of the worst losses of knowledge in history.
Media giants are now threatening to do this.
We can't let this happen.
Pass it on.