Resource Guides – Internet Archive Help Center https://help.archive.org How can we help you? Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:23:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8 https://help.archive.org/files/2024/03/cropped-Internet-Archive-Logo-White-on-Black-520x520-1-32x32.png Resource Guides – Internet Archive Help Center https://help.archive.org 32 32 First time using the Internet Archive? Start Here. https://help.archive.org/help/first-time-using-the-internet-archive-start-here/ Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:48:14 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1862 First Time using the Internet Archive? Start Here.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library. Everything here is free. There are many exciting and powerful ways to explore at archive.org.

The Wayback Machine shows you what websites looked like in the past.

If you want to see what a webpage looked like last year, ten years ago, or in 1999, use the Wayback Machine. You give it a web address (a URL), it shows you a calendar of snapshots. Pick a date and you’re looking at the past. Use Changes view to compare two archived versions of the same site side-by-side. Use the Wayback Machine search bar at archive.org or go directly to web.archive.org. 

Learn more: Using the Wayback Machine

Media Collections – Find Books, Music, Video, and More

This is a vast library of digital content at the Internet Archive: books you can borrow or download, films, music, old radio programs, video games that run in your browser, research papers, and much more. Most of it is accessible immediately. Use the main search bar at archive.org. 

  • Live Music Archive — 200,000+ concerts from bands. Any deadhead fans out there?
  • TV News Archive — US & International television channels searchable in English. Been around since 2009. 
  • Old Time Radio — Thousands of programs from the 1930s–1960s.
  • Software Library — Vintage games and software running in your browser. No download required.
  • Internet Archive Scholar — 35M+ research papers. Direct URL: scholar.archive.org.

Learn more: Search – Building powerful, complex queries

Upload — Preserve Your Own Materials

Anyone with an account can upload documents, audio, video, photos, or almost any digital file. Your upload gets a web address. No storage fees. No expiration. Go here: archive.org/upload

Learn more: Uploading — A Basic Guide

What Would You Like to Do?

“I want to borrow or read a free book”

→ Go to archive.org and search by title or author → On the results page, look at the left sidebar and select Texts to filter → Click a book — the button will tell you what’s available:

  • “Read” — free to read or download immediately, no account needed
  • “Borrow for 14 days” or “Borrow for 1 hour” — requires a free account; works like a library loan
  • “Join Waitlist” — all copies checked out; add yourself to the list
  • “Borrow Unavailable” — this title is not currently available for borrowing unless you have print disability access

You can borrow up to 10 books at a time. Loans return automatically — no late fees.

Learn more: Borrowing from the Lending Library

“I want to save a webpage before it changes or disappears”

  • The Save Page Now feature lets you create an instant, permanent archived snapshot of any live webpage.

→ Go to web.archive.org → Find the Save Page Now box on the right side of the page → Paste the URL you want to save → Click Save

You’ll receive a permanent link to the archived version. 

Learn more: The Wayback Machine

“I want to upload and preserve my own files”

You can upload to the Internet Archive for free. Your files receive a web address, are stored indefinitely, and are automatically converted into multiple formats.

→ Create a free account at archive.org → Click the Upload button in the top right corner → Add your files and fill in the title and description → Choose a media type and a license → Click Upload

“I want to find academic or research papers”

→ Go to scholar.archive.org

This is the Archive’s dedicated search tool for over 35 million academic papers and research articles. It works independently from the main archive.org search bar.

“My question isn’t answered here. Where do I get help?”

Browse the full help center at help.archive.org, watch how-to videos, or contact support at info@archive.org.

]]> How to View Tapestries & Common Error Messages https://help.archive.org/help/how-to-view-tapestries-common-error-messages/ Mon, 08 Dec 2025 19:51:35 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1781 Users can view Tapestries on the site’s main page. Tapestries examples showcase the various media types available and shared Tapestries can be made accessible to anyone with a link.

How do I know what kind of access I have?

Currently, Tapestries is only available as a viewable set of pages. In the future, when the creator of a Tapestry shares a link with a user, it will be either as a ‘Collaborator’ or a ‘Viewer’. Collaborators will be able to toggle ‘Author mode’ by pressing the 🄴 key.

How do I zoom in on one Tapestry item?

When looking at a larger Tapestry, you can view one item at a time by clicking on the item and pressing 🄵 on your keyboard. This will ‘focus’ your screen on what you’re looking at — similar to walking up to a specific painting in an art gallery. 
When you want to zoom back out, you can either press 🄵 again, or use the ‘Zoom in/out’ keys in the bottom right hand corner.

Using ‘pinching’ and ‘pulling’ motions on your screen will also allow you to zoom in and out.    

I clicked on a video or livestream in Tapestries and it isn’t playing, what should I do?

If you click on a video file that has been uploaded directly to Tapestries, it should begin playing as soon as you click on the thumbnail. Some embedded links have to be ‘activated’ before you can interact with them so you may need to click on certain videos more than one time. Once a video is playing, use the ‘Focus’ tool—🄵 on your keyboard—to enter and exit fullscreen mode.

I see the outline of a file or link but it’s blank, how do I fix it?

Sometimes files and images, like the ones above, have trouble displaying a thumbnail for viewing. These files are still usable and can be re-set to display their contents by clicking on them.

How do I download content off of a Tapestry?

You can download content from Tapestries to your own computer by clicking on the item and either pressing ‘command-I’ on your keyboard or clicking the ⓘ symbol to ‘Show info’.

This will display a source link which will appear as a webpage when you click on it. Once you see it load in a new tab, left-click (or two-finger-click if you’re using a keypad) on the image and select ‘Save image As…’.

If you’re downloading video or audio content, follow the same steps. The file should appear in a new tab on your browser with three dots on the right hand side like in the image shown below.

How do I find the link for a webpage embedded in a Tapestry?

Click on the page and press ⓘ to see a popup with the link included.

Tapestries: Common error messages and how to fix them

Why am I seeing a message saying ‘Cannot frame’ where a website should be?

Many popular websites—especially news sites—limit how their content can be used. When this happens, Tapestries has a feature whereby a user can view a version of the site that has been previously captured by the Wayback Machine, showing you a version of the page as it was at the time of capture (for more info see this article on Wayback captures).

When Tapestries is unable to display a site’s content, the Tapestry’s creator may be able to use “Wayback mode.”

What does it mean if a page is “Awaiting archive availability…”?

“Wayback mode” accesses URLs on the archive. There may be webpages that have not been captured by the Wayback Machine. If you have a URL you would like to add to the Wayback Machine, use Save Page Now (see this page for instructions).

Why is Tapestries giving me an “Internet Archive account not accessible” message?

If you’re getting this message from Tapestries it might be because your account is not verified. Verifying your account means that you have clicked the ‘Verify my account’ link the first time you logged into Archive.org. Make sure you have gone through the full signup process through the Internet Archive before trying to access Tapestries. If you are having ongoing issues, visit the Accounts – Tips & Troubleshooting page in our help center. 

One of the links on Tapestries is saying it “Couldn’t access the Internet Archive”, why is this? 

This may also appear as “Error while communicating with the Internet Archive”

It’s likely that this is an issue with a specific part of Archive.org and should resolve with time. Try reloading the Tapestry or checking the website in a separate webpage to see if it’s a connection issue or a site-specific issue.

]]> General kid-friendly resources https://help.archive.org/help/general-kid-friendly-resources/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:03:51 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1463 We recommend that you consider the date of publication and the source of the media when deciding whether it is a good resource for your child, and review everything first for age-appropriateness.

Collections that are entirely child-focused

Selections from general collections

Resources by Age

Many books do not come with age range recommendations but, for those that do, you can explore recommendations below. 

Archive resources can be found by using search terms to locate items that fit the categories you’re interested in. You’ll notice some examples of these search terms in the “Search” box in the links below. For more information on how to use search terms to navigate our collection of texts, see our Search – Tips & Troubleshooting help center page.  

Spanish language resources by age

]]> Man Booker Prize Winners https://help.archive.org/help/man-booker-prize-winners/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:02:16 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1461 The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the United Kingdom. 

2015

A brief history of seven killings

by James, Marlon

2013

The luminaries : a novel

by Catton, Eleanor

2012

Bring up the bodies

by Hilary Mantel

2010

The Finkler question

by Jacobson, Howard

2009

Wolf Hall : a novel

by Mantel, Hilary

2007

White tiger

by Adiga, Aravind

2005

The sea

by Banville, John

2004

The line of beauty

by Hollinghurst, Alan

2003

Vernon God Little

by D. B. C. Pierre

2000

The blind assassin

by Atwood, Margaret

1999

Disgrace

by Coetzee, J. M.

1998

Amsterdam

by Ian McEwan

1997

The god of small things

by Roy, Arundhati

1996

Last orders

by Graham Swift

1995

The ghost road

by Barker, Pat

1993

Paddy Clarke ha, ha, ha

by Doyle, Roddy

1992

The English Patient

by Ondaatje, Michael

1992

Sacred hunger

by Barry Unsworth

1991

The famished road

by Okri, Ben

1990

Possession

by A. S. Byatt

1989

The remains of the day

by Kazuo Ishiguro

1987

Moon tiger

by Lively, Penelope

1986

The old devils

by Kingsley Amis

1985

The bone people

by Keri Hulme

1984

Hotel du Lac

by Brookner, Anita

1983

Life & times of Michael K

by Coetzee, J. M.

1982

Schindler’s ark

by Keneally, Thomas

1981

Midnight’s children

by Salman Rushdie

1979

Offshore

by Fitzgerald, Penelope

1978

The sea, the sea

by Murdoch, Iris

1977

Staying on

by Scott, Paul

1976

Saville

by Storey, David

1975

Heat and dust

by Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer

1974

The conservationist

by Gordimer, Nadine

1973

The siege of Krishnapur

by Farrell, J. G. (James Gordon)

1971

In a free state

by V. S. Naipaul

1970

The elected member

by Rubens, Bernice

]]> Most challenged books since 2010 https://help.archive.org/help/most-challenged-books-since-2010/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:01:21 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1459 The American Library Association condemns censorship and works to ensure free access to information. Every year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to OIF from communities across the U.S.

More information on this subject can be read through this post by ALA. You may also be interested in our Banned Books collection.

Some of these challenged books are available on the archive and have been curated for you :

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin        

Reasons: challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, for “its effect on any young people who would read it,” and for concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood        

Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”

And Tango Makes Three written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole

Reason: Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content

Skippyjon Jones series written and illustrated by Judy Schachner        

Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini        

This critically acclaimed, multigenerational novel was challenged and banned because it includes sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and “promote Islam.”

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon        

Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”)

Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel        

Reasons: violence and other (“graphic images”)

Habibi, by Craig Thompson        

Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group

Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter        

Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi        

Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison        

Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky        

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”

A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard        

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone        

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit

Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya        

Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

Bone (series), by Jeff Smith        

Reason: political viewpoint, racism, violence

Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz        

Reasons: unsuited for age group, violence

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls        

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit

ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa        

Reasons: nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins        

Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, violence

My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler

Reasons: nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley        

Reasons: insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins        

Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer        

Reasons: religious viewpoint, violence
Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor        

Reasons: offensive language and sexually explicit

It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris

Reasons: abortion, homosexuality, nudity, religious viewpoint, sex education, unsuited to age group

The Holy Bible        

Reasons: religious viewpoint

Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich        

Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie        

Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar        

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones        

Reasons: sexual content, being unsuited to age group

]]> 100 Great Books by Black Women – The Zora Canon https://help.archive.org/help/100-great-books-by-black-women-the-zora-canon/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:00:37 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1457 From the earliest days of American literature, Black women have made invaluable contributions—although their work was often discounted, criticized, or ignored. To counter this history, the online publication Zora (named for author Zora Neale Hurston) created The Zora Canon, a collection of the 100 most prominent books written by African American women. Even better, most of these books are available to check out for free on the Internet Archive!

“To our knowledge,” write the editors of Zora, “no one has ever compiled a comprehensive list specifically featuring the finest literary works produced by African American women authors. We decided to undertake that effort both to honor that still underappreciated group of writers and to provide [readers] with a handy reference guide to their work. ”

The books were compiled in consultation with a panel of academics, critics, authors, editors, and authorities on African American women’s literature, who each added to the final list. The result was 100 works spanning more than a century and a half in a huge variety of genres and styles, including novels, plays, poetry, memoirs, anthologies, and scholarly works. “Taken together,” write the editors, “the works don’t just make up a novel canon; they form a revealing mosaic of the Black American experience during the time period. They’re also just great reads. ”

As part of our commitment to offering Universal Access to All Knowledge, the Internet Archive works to share literature from diverse perspectives—which is why we were pleased to discover that most of the books in the Zora Canon are already available in our collections. Many of them are available for checkout—all you have to do is sign up for a digital library card—while a few are in the public domain, allowing anybody to download them without limitation. Some of the books that aren’t yet available can be added through our Book Sponsorship program, so that future readers can discover and enjoy them. 

If you’d like to read some of the books on the list, check out the links below! If you want to expand your reading further, you can also browse our #1000 Black Girl Books Collection (which features a range of books with Black girls and women as the protagonists) or our full list of works by Zora Neale Hurston. Happy reading!

The Zora Canon

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

A Voice From the South: By a Black Woman of the South by Anna Julia Cooper

African American Music: An Introduction by Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby

Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks

All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830–1900 by Martha S. Jones

All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave edited by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Assata by Assata Shakur

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women by Brittney C. Cooper

Black Macho and the Myth of the Black Superwoman by Michele Wallace

Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class by Mary Pattillo-McCoy

Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and About Black Women edited by Mary Helen Washington

Blacks by Gwendolyn Brooks

Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith

Blue-Chip Black by Karyn R. Lacy

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Corregidora by Gayl Jones

Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness by Simone Browne

Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan edited by Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Eva’s Man by Gayl Jones

Fish Tales by Nettie Jones

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis, edited by Frank Barat

Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy

Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara

Homegirls: A Black Feminist Anthology edited by Barbara Smith

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelo

I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems by Sonia Sanchez

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory by Michele Wallace

Iola Leroy by Frances Harper

Jubilee by Margaret Walker

Killing the Black Body by Dorothy E. Roberts

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

Meridian by Alice Walker

Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

Oreo by Fran Ross

Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

Passing by Nella Larsen

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School by Monique W. Morris

Quicksand by Nella Larsen

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin

Radiance From the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art by Sylvia Ardyn Boone

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange

Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Sula by Toni Morrison

Sweat by Lynn Nottage

Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston

The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglas

The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni Cade Bambara

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction Into Ethnic Factions by Vilna Bashi Treitler

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

The Flagellants by Carlene Hatcher Polite

The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The Red Record by Ida B. Wells

The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara

The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1995 by Nikki Giovanni

The Street by Ann Petry

The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

There Is Confusion by Jessie Fauset

Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons, and Love Affairs by Pearl Cleage

Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words by Lorraine Hansberry

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa

Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice by Carla Shedd

Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman

We a BaddDDD People by Sonia Sanchez

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins

When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America by Paula Giddings

Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde

]]> Antiracist & Racial Equality Reading List https://help.archive.org/help/antiracist-racial-equality-reading-list/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 20:59:59 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1455 If you can afford it, please buy these books through a black-owned bookstore.

This guide combines recommendations from several published reading lists (detailed at end of article). We included all of the books from these lists that we have available to borrow. 

We also have a separate list of racial equality books for kids as well as a list of books by black women authors.



The following reading lists were used to compile this guide, and contain more resources than are listed here:

]]> Religion https://help.archive.org/help/religion/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 20:59:18 +0000 https://help.archive.org/?p=1453 Religion is a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements.

General

African

Altaic

Austronesian

Confucianism

Christianity

Shinto

Taoism

Islam

Jainism

Judaism

Rastafari

]]>