The Internet Archive: Preserving Community History, One File at a Time

In April, a curated collection of music by Chicago music enthusiast Aadam Jacobs made national news. Mr. Jacobs, a devoted supporter of the city’s live music scene, has been recording shows for decades—starting with a Nirvana performance he captured on cassette in 1989 and continuing through lesser-known Chicago bands well into 2016, often relying on his trusty Sony recorder.

As far as has been reported, Jacobs is not trained in media archival work, nor is he a noted cultural critic. He is simply a man with a passion, and for twenty-five years, he followed it. In doing so, he became an inadvertent chronicler of his community’s music culture. His collection—now formally recognized as the Aadam Jacobs Collection—has become an indispensable resource for a wide range of listeners: fans of the bands he recorded, fellow audiophiles, and media historians and archivists who can now access the fruits of his labor without paying a single cent. 

What makes this feat of free distribution possible? We wouldn’t have known about this collection—or countless others—without the Internet Archive, the nonprofit digital library that now houses billions of pieces of media.

Like Jacobs’s work, the Internet Archive itself arose from humble beginnings. Founded in 1996, it emerged in response to the internet’s explosive growth and the realization that vast amounts of information and history were disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

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After decades of gathering media in every imaginable format, the Internet Archive now stands as a premier digital library—and the gold standard for accessibility in this space. Like most physical libraries, it operates as a nonprofit, collecting no fees and showing no advertisements. Instead, it relies entirely on philanthropic support and individual donations, which fund the upload of thousands of items every day.

Many of those items, like the Aadam Jacobs collection, are utterly unique. They aren’t best-selling books or chart-topping albums; more often, they’re works released by small publishers, self-published creators, or artists whose material never saw formal publication at all. Browsing any corner of the Internet Archive offers a genuinely one-of-a-kind experience, revealing materials with equally distinctive origins. Whether you’re drawn to faithfully archived vintage computer games, images from NASA missions, or TV news segments, the Internet Archive has something for every taste and persuasion.

Aadam Jacobs’s path to becoming an amateur music archivist is also unusual, but it shouldn’t be quite as rare as it is. The truth is that nearly every community has people like Jacobs doing the quiet, unsung work of preserving the irreplaceable cultural history that makes that community distinct. His newfound acclaim should prompt us to elevate other collectors across the country who are doing similar work.

By using and supporting the Internet Archive and other archives—physical or digital—we help ensure that material deserving a platform can be seen by as many people as possible. Free, accessible information is a cornerstone not only of our libraries but also of the democratic ideals these institutions uphold.

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Unfortunately, the Internet Archive’s position in the information ecosystem is precarious. It stands in opposition to the increasingly monetized nature of most online services and to the powerful publishing houses that determine which materials—books, CDs, and beyond—are made commercially available.

As recently as 2024, a lawsuit brought by four major book publishers against the Internet Archive was decided in the publishers’ favor, forcing the library to remove millions of titles from its digital shelves. Many of these books had little or no connection to the plaintiffs, and nearly all were of minimal financial value, yet their access was restricted. In the aftermath, the Internet Archive was pushed onto the defensive amid widespread outcry from patrons who suddenly lost access to unique materials that, once removed, are nearly impossible to recover.

Now, the same dynamic is unfolding again. This time, thousands of written journalistic articles are under threat. EveryLibrary stands with the Internet Archive and its mission to preserve digital resources and make them available to all, and we ask that you consider doing so as well. Supporting the Internet Archive—whether by using its collections, advocating for its role in the information ecosystem, or making a donation—helps ensure that the cultural record remains accessible to everyone.