Brewster Kahle and Tony Marx: The Internet Archive at 25 | LIVE from NYPL

LIVE FROM NYPL

In 1996 a young computer scientist named Brewster Kahle dreamed of building a “Library of Everything” for the digital age. A library containing all the published works of humankind, free to the public, built to last the ages. He created the Internet Archive and its mission: to provide everyone with universal access to all knowledge. “The goal of the Internet Archive,” Kahle has written, “is to create a permanent memory for the Web that can be leveraged to make a new Global Mind.” In the intervening years, libraries have evolved, expanded, and adapted to thrive in the digital age.

Where do these two stories intersect? How have our understandings about the meaning and value of archives, libraries, and access undergone seismic shifts in the past 25 years? Tony Marx, the President of The New York Public Library, and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle discuss.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Anthony W. Marx is President of The New York Public Library, the nation’s largest library system, with 88 neighborhood libraries and four scholarly research centers. Since joining NYPL in 2011, Marx has strengthened the Library’s role as an essential provider of educational resources and opportunities for all ages. Under his leadership, the Library has created new early literacy and after-school programs for children and teens, dramatically increased free English language classes and citizenship support for immigrants, and improved services for scholars and students who rely on the Library’s world-renowned research collections. Under Marx, the Library has also become a national leader on bridging the digital divide through its efforts to increase access to e-books, expand computer classes and coding training, and a groundbreaking program that provides home internet access to families of low-income students. Before joining the Library, Marx served as president of Amherst College from 2003 to 2011, during which time he tripled enrollment for low-income students. Before Amherst, Marx was a political science professor and director of undergraduate studies at Columbia University. Marx has a BA from Yale, an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a PhD, also from Princeton.

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