Digital lending library

The Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, was founded in 1996 "to build an Internet library." According to its website, its collections now include "texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages." It recently launched a project called OpenLibrary.org, a collaboration of libraries providing e-books to check out. Read about how it works on the Internet Archive's Digital Lending Library page.

Currently available at OpenLibrary.org:

• More than one million digital versions of older books are now available for free download in a variety of formats.
• Over 70,000 current digital books to those with a library card from many of the over 11,000 libraries that subscribe to the OverDrive service.
• Genealogical books from the Boston Public Library.
• How-to and technical book collection via the Internet Archive.
• Marine life reference materials from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
• Spanish texts from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.