Digital Spotlight: The Internet Archive Helps Theological Libraries Find New Homes for their Collections

This year has brought on many new challenges for librarians and students needing to access religious studies and theological resources. Some libraries have had to downsize their physical space, partner with other libraries, or provide online resources due to distance learning.

The Internet Archive has become an invaluable resource for Atla members and other theological libraries. Here are just a few of their stories.

Institutional Member Hope International University

Robin Hartman, Director of Library Services at Hugh and Hazel Darling Library, Hope International University, experienced significant renovations this year. She had to give up twenty-five percent of her space in Fullerton, California, leading her to donate some of her collection to the Internet Archive. All 191 boxes will be digitized and made available online. 

Read more of their story on the Internet Archive.

Institutional Member Claremont School of Theology

The Claremont School of Theology Library donated 250,000 research volumes to the Internet Archive this summer. Recently, the school decided to affiliate with Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, leading to changes in how patrons would access their collections. While interlibrary loan services are a great resource, there became pressing concerns due to COVID-19. So, the Board of Trustees authorized the donation and preservation of 250,000 pieces to the Internet Archive, which will allow patrons to access the materials along with the general public.

Read more of their story on the Internet Archive.

Evangelical Seminary

Evangelical Seminary closed its physical campus in March and moved entirely online, including access to materials in the library. This July, the Seminary transformed its physical library collection into a digital library, donating more than 80,000 books to the Internet Archive. While the Seminary waits for the entire collection to be moved online in the next two years, they have partnered with physical libraries for interlibrary loan services. 

Read more of their story on the Internet Archive. 

Create a free account to access their collections and other resources.

About

The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive has a historical web collection (the Wayback Machine) of over 150 billion web pages, about 240,000 movies, over 500,000 audio items (including over 70,000 live concerts), over 1,800,000 texts, 1600 education items, and over 30,000 software items. Learn more about them and how to make physical donations.