Merrilee Proffitt

Democracy's Library @ the Internet Archive | Library and archives leader | People at the center of all I do; DEI advocate and practitioner.

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Beginning in January 2025, we witnessed an unprecedented removal of material from U.S. federal websites — public documents gone from public view almost overnight.

I've written about the End of Term Archive and it's importance for Democracy's Library. 👇
https://t.co/l3aT469r7V

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

We've been getting a lot of questions lately about how the Internet Archive digitizes books.

The short answer: page by page, by hand.

You may remember our viral 2021 video of Eliza Zhang scanning a book. That's still how we do it.

Meet Eliza, and learn how we scan books: https://t.co/gt9s5lbPE4

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

Builders: here’s a chance to make something new from a massive public archive.

Internet Archive Canada @internetarcCA is offering a $5,000 fellowship to build new tools using 22M+ pages of open Canadian government publications.

Applications close Aug. 21 → https://t.co/UYrfWWu1Si

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

@Sarah_Stierch Devilishly good Sarah! Good for you!

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Help build on collections in Democracy's Library, create something new and cool based on Canadian gov publications. Apply for the the AI Builders Fellowship a $5,000 award for anyone,to spend six weeks turning a massive public archive into something new. https://t.co/ulj1UbdV8L

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Please join! Really looking forward to this conversation and talking about Democracy's Library!

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

My presentation on Democracy's Library at the
@internetarchive from the Spring @cni_org
meeting is now available! If you want to learn more about my work, I'm the first 15 minutes of this recording.

https://t.co/JpPdsHU5BY

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Oh hi it's me!

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

🧵 1/3 As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, it's worth asking: What does democracy require of us when it comes to preserving public knowledge?

Join us for THE FIGHT FOR THE PUBLIC RECORD, a LIVE Future Knowledge #podcast recording exploring who preserves the public record…and what happens when it disappears. 🕳️

📅 Tues, Jun 23
🕙 10AM PT
📍ONLINE
🎟️ https://t.co/H8di3w3Mtc

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Check out my latest article: Information Stewardship Forum: News from the Government Information Space, May 11, 2026 https://t.co/Jl9y8dORIl via @LinkedIn

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Democracy's Library in the works! Thanks to our hardworking scanners.

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

It's microfiche in the digital era 📄💻

Want to see how microfiche is preserved digitally? You can!

Check out the Democracy’s Library #livestream, 7:30 AM–Midnight PT, scanning & preserving public records in real time — all to mellow #lofi vibes.

📡 https://t.co/ZtbXXhHcx2

#LiveNow

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

RIP Ask Jeeves. The natural-language search engine founded in 1996 was rebranded as Ask in 2006, and officially shut down on May 1.

Here are the Wayback Machine’s first and last captures of the site.

When websites disappear, the historical record can disappear with them. The @WaybackMachine preserves that history – capturing the web so its past remains accessible.

Explore 30 years of web history: https://t.co/26v2OOgRbq

#90s #90sNostalgia #WebHistory #WebDesign

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

On 1 May, it is my pleasure to join James Jacobs (US Government Information Librarian, Stanford University) for a discussion about the Preservation of Government Information Call to Action https://t.co/kq3rNGWjA8
All welcome! Registration & more https://t.co/sCLTgxUSKH
#govinfo

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

The arguments behind every landmark Supreme Court ruling have never been freely available to the public… until now.

Thanks to a gift from the Wolf Law Library at William & Mary Law School, more than 125,000 #SCOTUS records & briefs are now freely freely available on the Internet Archive, spanning 1830 through 2019. The arguments that shaped America, including Brown v. Board of Education. Loving v. Virginia.

Read the full announcement ⤵️
https://t.co/yhjqSBVDOa

@WMLawSchool #SupremeCourt #DemocracysLibrary

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Thank you Wolf Law Library for bringing this collection to us and to Leslie Street for generous coaching and to @FreeLawProject for excellent metadata!

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Excited to share that we've made a collection of Supreme Court Records and Briefs available via @internetarchive . I've written a blog post where I go into more detail about the importance of this collection.

https://t.co/oRyfrx3who

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Government information should be freely available to all, but that is not always the case. I'm proud that we are doing our part to change this, especially for a body of materials that is of such high interest in the US context & beyond. This is what is behind Democracy's Library.

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

Destroying the @InternetArchive's @WayBackMachine would be the equivalent of the burning of the Library of Alexandria - one of the worst losses of knowledge in history.

Media giants are now threatening to do this.

We can't let this happen.

Pass it on.

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

I am proud to be one of the 100 journalists who signed the letter defending the @InternetArchive's essential @WayBackMachine.

Corporate news outlets now trying to block archival preservation of the news is a betrayal of the ideals of journalism.
https://t.co/UxWHe3aSPd

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

#worldartday! A mosaic bench from Aruba to lift your spirits.

https://t.co/UfcQVEFcm9

#democracyslibrary

[Merrilee Proffitt @MerrileeIAm]

Thought you guys might be interested in this Apollo 17 sizzle reel from 1973 - the last moon mission prior to Artemis! Captured by @NASA, preserved and made available by @internetarchive

https://t.co/fFl1Gl9Rk2

#NASA #artemis #artemisii #democracyslibrary