The Internet Archive held its annual celebration on October 23, with leaders showing resilience—and finding support—to carry out their work, despite recent attacks.

Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive’s founder and digital librarian, praised the hard work of staff to restore services following a cyberattack in early October. That hit came on the heels of a court decision limiting the library’s ability to lend hundreds of thousands of books, while another lawsuit from the recording industry looms.

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“Libraries are under attack,” Kahle said. The pushback—including book banning, defunding, and publishers’ refusal to sell ebooks to libraries—makes it difficult for the library system to evolve and serve new generations of users, he said.

“We need to assert the rights of digital libraries to do our work, to take these bad news situations and secure our support within the legislature and the judiciary,” Kahle said, encouraging audience members to get involved.

The eclectic gathering at the non-profit’s Funston Avenue headquarters, a former church converted to library and community space, expressed confidence in the organization and its vital role in providing access to knowledge.

“Our democracy and our humanity all count on your support for Internet Archive,” said San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who took the stage to make a surprise Proclamation supporting the library. “Please continue to celebrate them today and every day.”

In the recent publisher lawsuit against the Archive, author Maria Bustillos said the courts got it wrong when it protected profits over the interests of society as intended in copyright law. She is a founding editor of The Brick House, a cooperative of writers and artists who support publishers selling ebooks to libraries.

“I became a writer for the chance to be part of a literary tradition many centuries old, a literary tradition protected by libraries,” Bustillos said. “I make money by my writing, but I don’t want money that comes at the expense of the values that made me a writer in the first place.”

Attacks on the Internet Archive and other libraries are strikes against freedom of information, she said, calling on the public to fight for the future of libraries. “It falls to people with conscience and brains and a sense of history to rise up to protect libraries. That is our task now,” Bustillos told the crowd. Encouraging her fellow authors, Bustillos implored:

“Writers: RAISE HELL! Let’s work together to make sure that all publishers will sell, not rent, our ebooks to libraries. That way, libraries will stay libraries.”

The celebration included honoring the island nation of Aruba with the Internet Archive Hero Award, presented annually to individuals, organizations, or nations that have shown exceptional leadership in expanding access to knowledge and supporting the digital preservation of cultural and historical materials.

“This award is significant encouragement for us to continue preserving our cultural identity and history together. We are not only safeguarding our heritage but also empowering our community, both here and abroad.”

Xiomara Maduro, Minister of Finance and Culture, Aruba

Earlier this year, the nation launched Coleccion Aruba, a digital heritage portal that provides free global access to its historical materials and cultural treasures. Aruba was the first nation ever to partner with the Internet Archive to provide long-term preservation of its entire national archives. The digital materials are stored on a server that will be kept on the island.

Mrs. Xiomara Maduro, Aruba’s Minister of Finance and Culture, accepted the award in San Francisco, alongside librarians and archivists from the country involved with the digitization project.

“This award is significant encouragement for us to continue preserving our cultural identity and history together,” Maduro said. “We are not only safeguarding our heritage but also empowering our community, both here and abroad.”

The recognition serves as a spark to motivate other nearby islands to digitize their collections, she added—something that would not be possible without the technical support of the Archive.

“It means a world of difference to us,” said Peter Scholing, information specialist/researcher at BNA (the national library in Aruba), of the Internet Archive’s backing. “It is not about just giving us a digital platform but also now, with this award, people can see and read about Aruba and our history and language.”

The Internet Archive partners with several countries to preserve government materials and make them publicly available. At the event, Loren Fantin staffed a table to promote Democracy’s Library, with 700 collections from over 50 government organizations, archived by the Internet Archive since 2006 with more than half a million documents.

People were drawn to the celebration to learn more about the organization that they’ve relied on over the years in a variety of ways.  

While he’d never been at the Archive’s headquarters, Joe Dummit said he is a huge fan and has spent many hours online downloading its resources—particularly its film collection. He and Emily Giddings, who recently moved to San Francisco, used vintage film clips when making music videos (including “I Can Dance”) for their Indie pop rock band, Zigtebra.

“We are happy to support it because the archive of culture is so worth preserving, the weirdness and uniqueness of people,” Giddings said.

Sage Ryan of San Francisco said he also uses archival video from the collection to make video collages, and uploads his music for preservation online. He recently toured the Funston Avenue headquarters and came back to the event to find out more for a possible documentary project on the Internet Archive—who uses it and how it affects people’s lives.

Robert Anderberg came from San Jose for the celebration. He’s a game developer who said he enjoys accessing old video games preserved by the Internet Archive that don’t exist anywhere else. 

Anderberg said he was also motivated to attend to learn more as he’s building a decentralized social network in his spare time. “In order for people to build communities online, they have to give up all of their agency to companies,” he said. “I want to build something where people are in control of their own communities.”

The Internet Archive has been a valuable learning tool, said John Fuqua of South City, who uses it to look up old magazines, websites and other resources. He added: “The Internet Archive is an incredible place doing an incredible mission of saving things. Information wants to be free!”