University students have a reputation for keeping strange hours. I personally often find myself finishing papers at ungodly hours of the night, kicked out of the library after it closes to skulk around online for final pieces of research.
In the process, I often turn to the Internet Archive, a non-profit dedicated to preserving a record of online spaces and providing free digital access to numerous books and print resources.
Unfortunately, access to research materials can be hard to get, and while digital resources are available at any time of the day, they’ve recently come under controversy.
In March of 2023 the Internet Archive lost a lawsuit raised by the Hachette Book Group, alongside a number of other publishing houses, alleging that their Open Library program violated copyright law by lending out digitized versions of print books the Internet Archive had bought, but which were still commercially available.
On August 11, 2023, the Internet Archive reached a negotiated judgment to stop lending the plaintiffs’ books. While they were allowed to continue lending out copyrighted books which had no published ebook format, the ruling severely limited the books the Internet Archive could provide.
In a statement detailing the impacts of the ruling, the organization expressed concern about limited access.
“This injunction will result in a significant loss of access to valuable knowledge for the public. It means that people who are not part of an elite institution or who do not live near a well-funded public library will lose access to books they cannot read otherwise,” wrote Chris Freeland, Director of Library Services at the Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive takes a unique approach to providing information and educational resources. Its digital nature allows anyone to borrow books and learn from them, no matter where they are or when they find the time.
Yet it also struggles with some unique problems. In addition to copyright concerns, the Internet Archive lacks something traditional libraries have always had: a physical space.
As Marcela Cabello and Stuart M. Butler wrote for Brookings, physical libraries serve as “third places,” or spaces for people to spend time interacting and building community outside of the demands of the workplace or home.
According to Cabello and Butler, “libraries are combining the access and trust characteristics of a third place with a hub role in the community–using partnerships with other institutions to connect people with services and help.”
For students, libraries also provide a place to focus on work and access the internet.
Laramie is fortunate to have a number of different library resources, including the Albany County Public Library, the American Heritage Center and the William Robertson Coe Library.
These resources offer a home for community building, public support and learning, yet It’s hard to use these resources to their fullest extent. While traditional libraries don’t raise copyright issues, they also don’t provide the exhaustive availability of the Internet Archive.
Most notably, Laramie’s libraries are only open for a limited window of time. The county library is never open later than 6:00 pm and is closed entirely on Wednesdays, and the American Heritage Center is only open between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. For people who work nine-to-fives or students who have class, neither is accessible.
While the Coe library is open much later, closing at 11:00 pm most nights, many students still need more time to finish their work, and students are asked to leave at 7:00 pm on Fridays.
These hours restrict many people’s opportunities to learn and benefit from the wonderful resources libraries provide.
While the Internet Archive’s novel online solution to this problem is limited by copyright law, physical libraries have a simple answer at their fingertips: expanding their hours.
For the University of Wyoming, the ideal solution is to keep Coe Library open, if only in a limited capacity, around the clock.
The University of Wyoming is an educational institution, and having a library accessible at any time would allow students to to study whenever works best for them, to better dedicate themselves to their academic pursuits and to ultimately learn more.
Staffing shortages and lack of funding may make this difficult, but the benefit of increased access is worth it.
