Internet Archive officially a library

According to a posting in the Internet Archive forum, the state of California has officially designated the Internet Archive to be a library.  They link to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article for more information.

Perhaps Mary can comment on the process necessary to be designated a library in California.  The action is interesting, regardless.  One of the topics covered in the March 2006 roundtables of the Section 108 Study Group was whether purely virtual libraries should be able to take advantage of the Section 108 exemptions.  (Under current law they most likely would not be eligibile.)  California's action seems to be a recognition that how we define a library is changing.

Comments

[Mary]

Mary,

Ira forwarded your inquiry about the Internet Archive to me for reply. The initial inquiry from them was about E-Rate, which requires that a site be certified by a State Library agency as eligible for LSTA.

We took a look at http://www.archive.org/about/about.php

Under the guidelines at http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lsta/docs/GUIDELINES.pdf they were determined to be a special library. See pdf page 2 (document page 1) of the above, at I. Federal (2) "library" (E) other special library. Also see pdf page 3 (document page 2) of the above at II. State, C. Special Libraries, 2. Archives and historical societies.

A letter was then sent to the Schools and Libraries Division of USAC signed by the State Librarian certifying the Internet Archive as eligible for LSTA.

The Internet Archive subsequently submitted proposals for LSTA grants, and has been awarded one for their openlibrary.org project. The funding is contingent on passing and signing a state budget by the Legislature and the Governor.

Rush Brandis
California State Library