If you will be seeking an independent appraisal, please complete an inventory of your items prior to shipping.

If you would like a receipt for your physical donation please reach out to the team at donations@archive.org prior to shipping.

Please consider us as a forever home for your media!

No collection is too large or too small. We have received donations as small as a few books or records, we have gone onsite to pack and ship whole libraries, and we have received collections of every size in between.

Please see our Media Types For Donations page for the full list of media types we are currently accepting. Please see our Does the Internet Archive Have My Media page for information on checking our library’s holdings against your collection. You may also visit our help center page here to learn about installing our Donate Books app to identify books we want to add to our library.

If your donation is a few boxes or less and you have already confirmed we do not have your media already please pack into sturdy boxes of a consistent size, label all boxes as “MISC Deduped” and their media type, and ship your kind donation to:

If it is a large collection or one that needs special consideration then please fill out the donation form. The team will then contact you by email or phone to see how we can best assist.

Donation Form

Please only use the donation form for large donations or assistance requests. Most small donations have successfully shipped using local carriers like USPS Media Mail, UPS or FedEx. We empower you to ship your kind donations as it is convenient for you! But if you would like confirmation of receipt please send your shipment’s tracking information to donations@archive.org.

We will be very accepting of materials that you will pack, ship and de-dupe, and we are more selective when we have to pay and coordinate. But we can do this and we have done so for many many collections of items we do not have.  For full libraries our Away Team will travel to your location to pack and ship.

We have donation drop off locations in the US and in England (books only) so please use the form to get instructions and drop off hours.

We try to digitize materials and make them available publicly as funding allows– we make no guarantees as to if and when this might be. There are some media types we are not yet digitizing, but are happy to physically preserve until we are able to do so. 

If the donation is large enough it gets recorded as a donation item on the archive.org website with photos of the donor if desired

Items donated to the Internet Archive become the property of Internet Archive, and will be recorded as an unrestricted gift. Items are not returnable after donation. We can provide a donation receipt roughly describing the donation back that can be used for tax purposes– but we can not do an appraisal.

For materials that do not fit into our collections for any reason, they are often donated to other non-profits or worthy causes, but sometimes recycled. Rarely are materials sold.

Please donate physical materials to the Internet Archive!

To learn more about our physical item donation program and the donation process, check out our webinar here.

We are generally seeking items that are in suitable condition for archiving. Unfortunately we cannot accept any media that has had any water damage, or items in a condition where handling will cause further damage to the object. We also cannot accept any items that contain mold or other hazardous material, for the safety of our staff and our archives. If you are unsure whether your items will be in good shape for digitizing, please feel free to fill out the donation form and our team will be glad to discuss with you. Our donation form can be found here.

2. Can I have my items back once they have been digitized?

Items donated to the Internet Archive become the property of Internet Archive, and will be recorded as an unrestricted gift. Items are not returnable after donation.

3. Where will my donation items be stored and can I visit them?

Once donated, your items will be stored in the physical archives and the items’ locations will be recorded in our pallet manager system. As the physical archives are archival, rather than library, environments it is possible to locate items in storage by request but it is not possible to “visit” items on shelves like at the library.

4. When will my donation items become accessible on archive.org?

We try to digitize materials and make them available publicly as funding allows– we make no guarantees as to if and when this might be. It is difficult to estimate the timeline for digitization as it depends on many factors such as ongoing projects and available funding. While we generally estimate anywhere from a couple months to one year from receipt to digitization, we cannot make any guarantees.

5. How can I find my items on archive.org once they have been digitized?

This depends on your donation! For larger institutional donations, we often create a digital collection on archive.org so all of the items can be visited in one place. For smaller donations, the easiest way to check if your items have been uploaded is to simply search for them on archive.org. Unfortunately we cannot give updates on the digitization status of items donated to the Internet Archive.

6. Can the Internet Archive estimate the value of my donation items?

Should you need a receipt, the Internet Archive can provide one that says the donation was accepted, but we cannot ascribe an appraised value. If you should need a determination of value, please secure an independent appraisal prior to donation.

7. Can the Internet Archive accept this very specific media type?

If you are unsure whether we can preserve and digitize your media, please check our Media Types for Donations page but feel free to fill out our donation form for further assistance. Generally we cannot accept physical objects like computers, cameras, etc. Our donation form can be found here.

8. I am beginning to make estate plans and would like to include my physical collection as a gift to the Internet Archive – is this possible?

Yes! Please reach out to our team at donations@archive.org and we would be glad to assist in your estate planning.

9. How should I pack my donation to the Internet Archive?

For all donation items we request that donors use sturdy double-walled boxes of a consistent size and pack boxes densely. Packing densely helps protect the media when it is stacked on pallets for shipping to our digitization centers, and also helps reduce shipping costs too. We request that all donations be packed by media type (ie. separate boxes for books and other media).

For books, please see our book packing basics guide for detailed instructions on how best to pack for shipping.

For records, we recommend packing discs vertically and densely with a sleeve or sheet of paper between the records to prevent grooves from chafing.

10. Why haven’t I received a response to the letter I enclosed in my donation box?

If your kind donation was packed according to our instructions, your box will likely not be opened until it has reached the digitization center! While we cannot make any guarantees or estimate the timeline for digitization, this step could take anywhere from a couple months up to a year or more. If you would like an acknowledgement or to share background information about your donation items, the best way to do so is to send a note to our team at donations@archive.org ahead of donation.

Books

• Use our web tool here or the Donate Books app

Serials & Periodicals – print

• Use our web tool here to search by ISSN or title
• Magazine collection can be searched here
• Newspaper collection can be searched here

Serials & Periodicals – microforms

• Use our web tool here to search by ISSN or title

CDs

• Check our CD collection here

LPs

• Check our LP collection here

Software

• Check our software collection here

Manuals

• Check our manuals collection here

78s

• Check our 78s collection here

45s

• Currently accepting all recordings on 45rpm

Wax cylinders

• Currently accepting all recordings on wax cylinders

Books – bound monographs including paperbacks

• Seeking unique books identified by the Internet Archive web tool or Donate Books app
• Accepting all pre-ISBN books without a comparison, books in non-English languages, textbooks

CDs – both audiobooks and music

• Seeking CDs that are unique to the Internet Archive’s collection here

LPs

• Seeking LPs that are unique to the Internet Archive’s collection here

78rpm records

• Seeking 78s that are unique to the Internet Archive’s collection here

Software

• Seeking software that is unique to the Internet Archive’s collection here

Serials

• Seeking long sequential runs of unique print serials. Send your list of ISSNs, volumes and years to info@archive.org for comparison.

Microfilm

• Seeking unique titles on microfilm identified by the Internet Archive web tool

Microfiche

• Seeking unique serials on microfiche identified by the Internet Archive web tool
• Seeking government documents on microfiche

Manuals

• Seeking manuals that are unique to the Internet Archive’s collection here

The Internet Archive is currently accepting donations of the following media types for preservation, with specific acceptance and digitization policies outlined below:

Periodicals – magazines, newspapers, etc

• Seeking complete runs of a particular title or long runs of sequential issues (ie. every issue from 1980-1985). We are not able to accept loose magazines or newspapers at this time.
• Seeking unique titles identified by the Internet Archive web tool.
• No guaranteed timeline for digitization.

45s

• Accepting all 45s without comparison.
• No guaranteed timeline for digitization.

DVDs

• Seeking educational titles only. 
• We are not able to accept commercial films at this time.
• No guaranteed timeline for digitization.

VHS tapes

• Seeking educational titles only. 
• We are not able to accept commercial films or homemade recordings at this time.
• Accepting for physical preservation only, no guarantee for digitization.

Photo slides

• Accepting all slides without comparison.
• No guaranteed timeline for digitization.

Reel-to-reel tapes

• Accepting for physical preservation only, no guarantee for digitization.

Other audio and video tapes (ie. cassettes, betacam, etc)

• Accepting for physical preservation only, no guarantee for digitization.

Sheet music

• Accepting for physical preservation only, no guarantee for digitization.

Wax cylinders

• Accepting for physical preservation only, no guarantee for digitization.