The Internet Archive Book Drive

The Internet Archive has been scanning books for some years now, and we're always looking for more. In addition to 1,000,000+ eBooks available to anyone available through Open Library, we've announced the release of modern books for the print-disabled community in a special format called DAISY. It's a brand new collection - one of the largest available online. For too long, print-disabled people have been denied access to the full breadth of contemporary books, and we'd like to assist in tipping that balance back to where it should be, universal access for all readers.

Please help us by donating books to be scanned or with financial support for the scanning process. Based on existing foundation funding, we are sponsoring the scanning of the first 10,000 books that are donated in this Book Drive. We're looking for wonderful and important books for this first 10,000 and even more books and money to keep it going. We will make these digital books as available to the world as we can, including the print-disabled, and will preserve the physical book for the long term.

How Does The Book Drive Work?

You can simply send up to 100 books or drop them off in person at our headquarters:

Internet Archive Book Drive
300 Funston Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

If you'd like to make a donation of more than 100 books, wow! That would be wonderful, but please give us a call on +1 415-561-6767 to arrange shipping and handling.

Just for Fun: Ex Libris

We'd like to recognize the generosity of everyone that donates a book to the book drive. It is simplest for us to do this if you include an "Ex Libris" bookplate inside the front cover of each book you donate. That way, when we scan your donation, we will simply photograph your bookplate. This will become part of the permanent digitized version of your donation.

Bookplates typically bear a name, motto, device, coat-of-arms, crest, badge, or any motif that relates to the owner of the book, or is requested by him from the artist or designer. The name of the owner usually follows an inscription such as "from the books of . . . " or "from the library of . . . ", or in Latin, ex libris .... Bookplates are important evidence for the provenance of books. - More info on Wikipedia

We'd love to see your personal bookplates! There are loads of Creative-Commons licensed designs for bookplates on Flickr if you need some inspiration. If you do end up creating your own, please share a photo of it into the Open Library Flickr group!

*Note: the bookplates are not a requirement of donating to the Book Drive. You're welcome to send along a book without one!*

Make a $ Donation?

A 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Internet Archive loves donations of cold hard cash almost as much as donations of books. While we're committed to sponsoring the first 10,000 books donated to the 2010 Book Drive, you're also welcome to sponsor the digitization of a book, or 10. (It costs around 10c per page to scan a book at the Internet Archive.)

You can find instructions for how to make donations to the Internet Archive on archive.org.

Scanning books at the Internet Archive

Did you know:

• the Internet Archive scans over 1,000 books every day?
  
• we employ over 200 book scanners in 20 locations?
  
• we have scanning centers in 5 countries around the world?

Please direct any inquiries about the Internet Archive Book Scanning Program to Ginger Bisharat, ginger@archive.org.

Please Note: While we absolutely encourage you to design your own bookplate for the project, please note that we will not scan any bookplates deemed offensive or defamatory.