Coping with the continuing crisis of the coronavirus and the difficulty of spending our time creatively while staying at home to prevent the further spreading of the pandemic, the non profit making organization The Internet Archive has taken the initiative of offering to anyone across the world free online access to all 1.4 million books of its lending library (and this number is increasing).
Recognizing this problem as an emergency, It launched a platform naming it the National Emergency Library. The organization is “building” a digital library of websites, allowing free access to scholars, historians, academics and the general public, already offering free access to 2.5 million books. Its recent initiative also extends free access to the 1.4 million volumes of its lending library: Until June 30 or to the end of the national emergency in the USA, there are no longer any waiting lists for them. Although the National Emergency Library will function in the USA, it can be used by anyone who is connected to the internet.
“The library system, because of our national emergency, is coming to aid those that are forced to learn at home,” said Brewster Lurton Kahle, founder of The Internet Archive. “This was our dream for the original Internet coming to life: the Library at everyone’s fingertips.”
