Brewster Kahle

https://mastodon.archive.org/@brewsterkahle

Digital Librarian at the Internet Archive
http://archive.org http://openlibrary.org http://brewster.kahle.org internetarchive (npub1umd…wfr7) tfr

Website: https://brewster.kahle.org
verification: https://brewster.kahle.org/2022/11/24/new-account-on-mastodon/

Public Key

npub1ftlrl36zhu09klw5qt75ksjd8z8wafzp37ht2h3d2uzjmnr9eeesu83e6s

NIP-05 Address

brewsterkahle_at_mastodon.archive.org@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy4l3lcapt78jm0h2q9l2tgfxn3rhw53qclt44tck4wpfde3juuucprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvpn637c

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

nos.lol

nostr.mom

Author Public Key

npub1ftlrl36zhu09klw5qt75ksjd8z8wafzp37ht2h3d2uzjmnr9eeesu83e6s

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Last Notes

2026-10-29 15:11:09 UTC

The French government yanks away cybersecurity from their citizens in DNS case (again). Copyright lobby wins (?)
Not safe, Not good.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quad9-quod-non-when-copyright-enforcement-drives-out-jmfhe

2026-10-21 22:18:05 UTC

Internet Archive ops staff were heroes last night.
PHP vulnerability announced, soon saw attacks, isolated the vulnerability, used Claude to make fixes for our older php versions, used local models to run simulated attacks, deployed.
reinforced WAF and other guards.
Offline briefly, Back on new versions and running!
Given the severity, there are heroes in many many orgs from last night.
Could have been no lights, no traffic signals, real problems.
Heroes.
Thank you all.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/481/199/924/821/312/original/f0004394a7042854.jpg

2026-10-17 04:06:19 UTC

Neal Stephenson. I had the pleasure to introduce Neal (foreground right) for his book talk on his new book @npub1umd…wfr7 . photo by friend
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/454/270/491/500/796/original/e91700b9ba2842e1.jpg

2026-10-16 15:36:33 UTC

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nice going! my hat is off to the camera sensor guys. stunning.

2026-10-16 00:00:32 UTC

Library geek corner: Some microfiche has super super small type, but we are getting great results from our super-camera / lens / stage / and processing.
@npub1umd…wfr7
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/447/637/418/913/940/original/7a0f575fec326a21.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/447/638/892/201/175/original/41a8b4d810008e8c.png

2026-09-12 16:51:10 UTC

1TB in this tiny usb-c thing? a moment of gratitude to the amazing engineers that made this happen.
Our first full web crawl (1997) was 2TB, and is housed in a sculpture by Alan Rath called "2Terabytes in 63 inches, the World Wide Web 1997"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FS87P1J7
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/259/080/647/022/772/original/cb5bf2bd7a37fbfd.jpeg

2026-08-19 00:18:41 UTC

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full text cluster was out after an outage, but is back but slow: https://archive.org/search?query=flywheel&tab=fulltext

2026-08-06 01:51:06 UTC

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1912

2026-08-06 01:26:59 UTC

Professional Wrestling has been around for a long time.
https://archive.org/details/professionalwres00smitrich/page/n5/mode/2up
thats it. just that.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/045/956/817/624/671/original/ed8a6683f081c43e.png

2026-07-29 23:15:36 UTC

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wouldn't it have been great if publishers SOLD ebooks, even at the price they charge for a printed book?
but they do not. they license.
And then buy each other.
Living based on the rule of law, not the rule of licenses. I want that world.
And it is causing all sorts of problems, and not just for libraries like the Internet Archive, but for authors etc etc.

2026-07-29 14:22:54 UTC

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3/3
But true camelCase, the pattern you originally asked about, does not appear to be an actual historical convention in American (or Canadian) library literature at all. It's essentially a myth as far as our holdings can show — likely a modern misreading or conflation with genuine tech-branding camelCase (like "PowerPoint" or "YouTube"), rather than something librarians themselves ever did.

2026-07-29 14:22:15 UTC

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2/3
Final, well-supported conclusion: our holdings confirm a stable, real four-way coexistence (title case, lowercase, all-caps-in-headers, and hyphenated variants of the first two) that persisted for decades side by side — often within the very same document.

2026-07-29 14:21:28 UTC

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claude set me strait using the Internet Archive's holdings:
True camelCase — "InterLibrary Loan" (internal capital L): still zero.
Across several hundred read snippets spanning ~70 years of library literature, genres, and geographies, not one single genuine instance of the internal-capital camelCase form turned up.
1/2

2026-07-29 13:42:05 UTC

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...Other familiar words followed the same arc — lifestyle, boilerplate, doorbell, screwdriver, tailwind, rowboat, and postcard all had eras when they were encountered more commonly as open or hyphenated compounds.

2026-07-29 13:35:00 UTC

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2/2
The crossover: 1925. In the Ngram data, "interlibrary loan" (closed) first overtakes "inter-library loan" (hyphenated) in frequency around 1925, and from that point forward it never looks back — closed spelling stays dominant continuously through the rest of the 20th century.
(summary by claude)

2026-07-29 13:34:34 UTC

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"inter-library loan" vs. "interlibrary loan" Google Books Ngram Viewer data comparing across the full corpus (1870–2019), and it gives a real number: around 1925.
Here's what the data shows:
1870s–1910s: The hyphenated form dominates entirely — this matches Green's 1876 "Inter-Library Loan of Books" and the early ALA-era usage we found in Library Journal.
~1900s–1920: Both forms are climbing in frequency (unsurprising, as ILL practice was growing), with hyphenated still clearly ahead.
1/2

2026-07-29 13:23:05 UTC

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thank you for the paper! (the 1876 was the US, and there references at the time to copying Europe)

2026-07-29 04:19:34 UTC

InterLibrary Loan history -- (you can stop reading now :) --
there was some early centuries AD, but...
First practical was UCBerkeley <-> California State Library in 1894.
but first call for it (in US) was 1876:
https://archive.org/details/libraryjournalch1187dewe/page/n32/mode/1up?q=%22LENDING+OF+BOOKS%22
love live ILL
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/117/001/312/016/996/835/original/07ade57f525c2211.png

2026-07-28 22:46:37 UTC

Big Batteries help with the electrification of everything. 800GW of solar was installed last year, and batteries help smooth the curves [previous post].
1.8TWh of batteries were made last year (!)
"global battery demand will grow from 1.8 terawatt hours last year to 5.7 TWh by 2030 and 16.6 TWh by 2050" from Researchers at Bernstein in Hong Kong
https://www.ft.com/content/13351971-76dd-4284-a81e-3ffd8ec4e351?syn-25a6b1a6=1
lets double a few more times and be done with this transition.

2026-07-28 05:01:09 UTC

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YES! absolutely.

2026-07-28 00:17:55 UTC

Thank you Canada! A moment of Gratitude.
A new Canada-US bridge opened that will be less congested and less expensive. The Canadians paid for building it ($6.4billion) and endured getting jerked around right before opening.
Thank you, Canada!
Gordie Howe Bridge! https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-gordie-howe-bridge-opens-to-cars/

2026-07-28 00:13:39 UTC

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Every Friday, 1pm. Please come! free. (the last couple have been huge-- super fun). and we generally have ice cream at the end.
I give the tour when I am in town, but this week I will be at DWeb Camp Cascadia near vancouver. (lets invent a better web)

2026-07-27 19:24:04 UTC

The Internet Archive San Francisco tours on Fridays at 1pm are getting more and more people. So fun. 300 Funston Ave.
Here are some other tiny bookie non-profits in San Francisco...
Letterform Archive https://letterformarchive.org/
Prelinger Library
https://prelingerlibrary.org/home/
San Francisco Center for Book
https://sfcb.org
The Whybrary
Mechanics Institute Library
https://www.milibrary.org/
im sure I am missing some....

2026-07-24 23:20:41 UTC

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True, it might be part of what we are seeing, but it is a bit before what we have seen other years.

2026-07-24 17:21:53 UTC

US War cost? A datapoint
Container shipping with Asia is now 2x more expensive and does not involve the Straight.
Sometimes it gets this high at Christmas time.
a datapoint.

2026-07-21 01:04:12 UTC

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2/2
Internet Archive all the US Supreme Court filings (not available on the Internet before) https://blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u-s-supreme-court-records-and-briefs-the-arguments-that-shaped-america-now-freely-available/. making analysis like this possible.
AI summary of briefs:
https://archive.org/details/micro_IA40385001_1623/review/Williams_Wilkins_Briefs_Guide.pdf
AI summary blog post
https://brewster.kahle.org/2026/07/20/good-by-to-gutenberg-nope-shrill-publisher-cries-about-xerox-machine-were-wrong/

2026-07-21 01:02:35 UTC

Good-by to Gutenberg? Nope—Shrill Publisher Cries about Xerox Machine Were Wrong
1975 Xerox machine lawsuit: publishers vs libraries amicus briefs AI summary and then AI blog post it.
The exhibits
Exhibit A — the photocopier is a printing press
Exhibit B — the journals will simply die
Exhibit C — one copy replaces all copies
Exhibit D — a censorship apocalypse
Exhibit E — the slippery slope to the end of publishing
Exhibit F — death of the marketplace of ideas
1/2

2026-07-19 13:03:45 UTC

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good point, the batteries need to be managed thermally, and AI answers say it is doable.
I am hopeful that the high $$ going into AI, the engineering skills in that sector, and their desperation will be channeled into increased solar capacity that will be useful long after the AI field finds efficiencies making it unneeded for themselves.
(I worked on supercomputers in the 80's that are the architecture of an nvidia chip and about as powerful. Engineers are good at optimization.)

2026-07-19 12:50:28 UTC

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Yes, you are right-- we need enough solar+battery for when the sun goes down. I understand it is abou 6x, and you cite 8x.
so a 1GW datacenter would take 6-8GW of solar. it is less than $1/W to installed, so $6-8Billion which is alot until you calculate what the servers will cost, and also the investment that is going into this sector, and that this may be the easiest way for these guys to get the power they need. (and no new long distance power lines if co-located)

2026-07-19 02:59:25 UTC

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good question. If the power is from solar / wind, then we do not have that water use (about 5x what is used in cooling according to article below).
The Internet Archive Canada's datacenter is sited, well, where it is cold most of the time, so it only needs water a few weeks a year for cooling. Needs a bit for humidification to help with heat transfer, but not much.
so site where it is colder, and even so, if you are not in.a desert then seems ok anyway.
try:
https://blog.andymasley.com/p/the-ai-water-issue-is-fake

2026-07-19 00:32:21 UTC

Happy news: in 2025 global new installed 814GW of wind and solar (solar is 664GW). china solar factories at 1/2 capacity! (US installing, but slowly, but you know that and why). big batteries working and improving
a nuclear power plant is 1GW -- why still talk nuclear?
so 1GW datacenters is one of siting correctly with local solar+batteries. could be not a big deal
The water use is not consequential if sited with thought
rare good news
https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/world-adds-a-record-breaking-814-gw-of-solar-and-wind-in-2025/
https://www.solarpowereurope.org/press-releases/new-report-global-solar-market-hits-new-record-of-664-gw-installation-in-2025-as-global-solar-fleet-passes-3-tw

2026-07-14 14:33:03 UTC

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batteries are getting to be really good. certainly over the short needs of a day or a couple of days.
California does not need peaker plants anymore because of massive investment in batteries to even out the solar/wind.
so good.

2026-07-14 14:31:29 UTC

Chinese electricity is now 37% from renewables.
In 2003, renewables’ share of electricity generation was about 15 per cent, nearly all of which was produced by hydropower. By 2025, this had increased to 37 per cent.
getting there. have a sunny day.
from https://www.ft.com/content/e67f40b6-48d6-4057-8d57-a9f5f6b0a741?syn-25a6b1a6=1

2026-07-12 19:15:45 UTC

RE: https://masto.ai/@rbreich/116908556846064206
What if datacenter builders built out there own solar panel farms around the center and battery packs so they were energy independent. then if the datacenter part is less needed in the future we are left with billions invested in solar infrastructure?
gigawatts of solar infrastructure sounds like a win to me, and they have the motivation and capacity.
lemonade.
#note1nfh…s5h0

2026-07-09 08:33:46 UTC

Dreams for the Web?
Reliable Private Fun /
No centralized points of control /
A game with many winners /
Lock the Web Open /
help people make money by publishing on the web (no middleman) /
_________, but decentralized (fill in cool service, e.g. google docs, tesla carOS, electronic tolls)
PublicAI: make progress on pressing issues like climate and healthcare.
#dwebcamp
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/889/085/172/253/701/original/6b14ce82179e13e1.jpeg

2026-07-09 08:25:01 UTC

#dwebcamp has a whole track on #publicAI
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/889/049/843/981/724/original/c203b7e48e5bd77e.jpeg

2026-07-04 09:16:28 UTC

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? is there a story I am missing?

2026-06-20 07:18:26 UTC

full text of MoU Iran/US:
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/18/nx-s1-5863027/us-iran-trump-memorandum-of-understanding-full-text.
wow, that is readable and uh straightforward.
(sorry if you have seen it)

2026-06-19 00:22:40 UTC

"The Copyright Office Doesn’t Need More Politics—Or More Power."
"Congress Just Rushed Through A Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul"
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/18/congress-just-rushed-through-a-disastrous-copyright-office-overhaul/
another reason to call your senator

2026-06-18 23:52:26 UTC

"In May, solar topped coal nationwide for the first time. In California, solar is fast displacing natural gas."
California has invested heavily in solar and batteries and it is displacing fossil fuels quickly.
Interesting to see solar top coal-based energy production nationwide in May.
https://www.transitionfinanceweekly.com/p/transition-finance-weekly-june-18

2026-06-18 23:06:40 UTC

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I am saying what I see in the service-- it has cut us off several times in its approach to keep from answering some types of questions.
have you not seen this, or not think this is enough? love more concrete observations from others.

2026-06-18 03:17:08 UTC

claude.ai is taking safety seriously, and may be overstretching and wobbling, but it is interesting to see.
I was looking for the 1985 Science Magazine article whose title included "western Montana of mechanical transmission of Tularemia" and it stopped the session.
"This model has safety measures that flagged something in this message. This sometimes happens with safe, normal conversations."

2026-06-04 01:10:38 UTC

Starting to weave links to digitized phD theses into wikipedia articles. This one in dutch wikipedia: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Bonn (look at the end)
soon, nobel prize winners..
Claude code is helping do matches and vetting to get candidate matches to editors to improve articles.
Thank you Leiden University for donating their historic collection so it could be preserved, flipped digital, opened, and linked to!
<insert joke about the readership of phD dissertations... 😀 >
https://archive.org/details/IA40154023_0013
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/689/147/617/861/833/original/3f4e7beac649f19f.png

2026-06-03 16:50:06 UTC

moment of gratitude: claude code to help improve our library.
Wrote a duplicate finder between two historic phD theses collections (physically different items, but same thesis) and doing mulitple algorithms to check and double check before putting in reviews to point to the other one.
We would just never have gotten to this kind of metadata enrichment and collection examination.
e.g. https://archive.org/details/IA40153314_0137 and https://archive.org/details/IA41553017_0067
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/687/200/591/200/700/original/d91831eacce69a14.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/687/200/840/636/405/original/281f6ec430519686.png

2026-05-28 00:01:14 UTC

The Internet Archive working with the NOAA Library to bring much of it digital and as accessible as possible is wonderful, and a wonderful model: lets flip more libraries digital.
https://archive.org/details/noaa
https://blog.archive.org/2026/05/27/two-libraries-two-sets-of-superpowers-the-internet-archive-and-the-noaa-library/
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/649/206/872/577/293/original/7b555efd5047f308.jpeg

2026-05-19 01:12:28 UTC

Connie Chan Rocks. Thank you Nancy Pelosi-- good pick to endorse for your seat.
Connie Chan represents the Internet Archive district in San Francisco, and got unanimous support for: Digital Library Rights, and Internet Archive Day resolution in 2025, and got the Internet Archive Hero award in 2023!
https://blog.archive.org/2023/04/20/san-francisco-board-of-supervisors-unanimously-passes-resolution-in-support-of-digital-rights-for-libraries/
https://blog.archive.org/2025/11/03/supervisor-connie-chan-recognizes-internet-archive-day-in-san-francisco/
https://blog.archive.org/2023/10/04/internet-archive-to-honor-supervisor-connie-chan-with-2023-hero-award/
Connie Chan understands our digital world and supports our digital learners.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/598/529/947/407/924/original/0f7156a34556945b.png

2026-05-18 14:02:37 UTC

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A friend thought we were in a "desktop publishing" moment (but for programming)-- when page layout went from pros to anyone-with-a-mac. We got bad design, and much more of it, as many people could publish leaflets and broadsides more inexpensively.

2026-05-16 16:53:30 UTC

As programming gets easier (and more fun) via claude code etc...
Will there be less programming or more? If there is latent demand for computer programs and ones that works, then the demand for programming, and therefore the number of programmers might increase not decrease.
When lighting got cheaper with electric lights, people lit more things. maybe this will happen with coding and coders?
What an interesting time to be alive.

2026-05-15 17:01:22 UTC

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Yes! good catch. It is July 8-12th. I will be there.

2026-05-15 01:33:29 UTC

The Daily Weather Report, 1938 International and Upper Air Sections by Air Ministry Meteorological Office, London W.C.2. Check out the first pages at link below.
Someone (or all AI's!) need to know!
I love my job.
pls post photos of why your job is awesome.
https://archive.org/details/daily-international-upper-air-sections_1938-10
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/575/999/603/091/099/original/a61da28a6aabd0c5.png

2026-05-13 05:30:05 UTC

Lovingly handwritten title on the spine! Meteorlogical Observations / Royal Observatory / Sydney / 1874-77
I love my job. (do you have random photos from work that make you happy?)
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/565/602/031/610/204/original/0b3675130d586964.jpg
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/565/602/403/494/629/original/8075847cff672955.jpg

2026-05-02 21:30:56 UTC

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Yes WikiData! (but could not figure it out yesterday)

2026-05-02 21:29:10 UTC

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https://archive.org/details/IA40153304_0058 │ La Syphilis Nerveuse Latente │ Charles Mantoux
https://archive.org/details/IA40153315_0105 │ L'Association Des Idées Dans La Manie Aigue Et Dans La Débilité Mentale │ Madeleine Pelletier
https://archive.org/details/IA40153322_0028 │ Tumeurs Du Testicule │ Maurice Chevassu
https://archive.org/details/IA41507204_0060 │ Ueber Persistenz von Resten der Tunica Vasculosa Lentis │Arthur Brückner

2026-05-02 20:38:20 UTC

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Pelletier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Carnot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odette_Abadi

2026-05-02 20:37:00 UTC

Linking data with the help of AI.
There are old medical PhD theses coming online (yea!).
Found Wikipedia articles about the doctors, and then edit the wikipedia articles that would be improved by pointing to them. Also added a review to the Internet Archive items to point to the wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mantoux
/more on next

2026-05-02 18:52:21 UTC

wow, china is leading on manufacturing renewables.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/20/china/china-energy-security-global-oil-crisis-iran-intl-hnk
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/506/473/437/184/149/original/318763523a795462.png

2026-05-02 17:53:37 UTC

fyi. First Tesla Semis (long haul 18 wheelers) come off of the new production line in dedicated factory.
at 500 mile range (astounding) I wonder if it could mean destination charging (with solar) rather than lots of charging stations.
https://electrek.co/2026/04/29/tesla-semi-first-truck-high-volume-production-line/

2026-05-02 17:34:48 UTC

Eyelids for Autonomous cars!
Cameras have trouble in the rain-- and now the new Waymo Ojai uses 10 windshield wipers to clean its sensors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymo_Ojai

2026-04-29 14:50:22 UTC

Claude Code is good at doing research!
In this case helping find the disposition of 126,000 digitized US Supreme Court dockets (cert denied or full opinion), and then reporting why in a archive.org review (using like a wikipedia discussion).
This took real hand-holding and QA to be sure, but it is super helpful. Looked at court listener, the supreme court site (and the old one via the wayback machine!), the Caselaw Access Project at harvard. So good.
https://archive.org/details/us-supreme-court

2026-04-15 04:54:41 UTC

Stanford tuition to Be $335 Starting September 1958.
(Things I learned today from scanning)
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/406/927/901/033/626/original/144744097488d008.jpg

2026-04-07 11:24:29 UTC

geez. Senators want to lock up the law (again).
@npub1jre…alex spent years making sure the law (and standards included in the law) were publicly accessible for free. Even getting the Supreme Court to declare it so.
yeah, but...
"Congress Wants To Put The Law Behind A Paywall. Again."
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/06/congress-wants-to-put-the-law-behind-a-paywall-again/
U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.),
John Cornyn (R-Texas),
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and
Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)
boo.