#         Frequently Asked Questions  

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| Questions
**Does the Archive issue grants?**

**Can I donate BitCoins?**

**What is the nonprofit status of the Internet Archive? Where does its funding come from?**

**How do I get assistance with research?  How about research about a particular book?**

**What statistics are available about use of Archive.org?**

**What's the significance of the Archive's collections?** | The Internet Archive        
**Does the Archive issue grants?**

          No; although we promote the development of other Internet libraries through online discussion, colloquia, and other means, the Archive is not a grant-making organization.        

**Can I donate BitCoins?**

          Yes, please do.   Our BitCoin address is: 1Archive1n2C579dMsAu3iC6tWzuQJz8dN .   Every bit helps.        

**What is the nonprofit status of the Internet Archive? Where does its funding come from?**

          The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It receives in-kind and financial donations from a variety of sources as well as you.        

**How do I get assistance with research?  How about research about a particular book?**

          The Internet Archive focuses on preservation and providing access to digital cultural artifacts.  For assistance with research or appraisal, you are bound to find the information you seek elsewhere on the internet.  You may wish to inquire about reference services provided by your local public library.  Your area's college library may also support specialized reference librarian services.  We encourage your support of your local library, and the essential services your library's professional staff can provide in person.  Local libraries are still an irreplaceable resource!          

**What statistics are available about use of Archive.org?**

Aggregated statistics are graphed here:https://archive.org/stats
Additionally, each individual item shows a download counts are shown on the details page for individuals items, and collections pages list the most downloaded items for that collection.          

**What's the significance of the Archive's collections?**

Societies have always placed importance on preserving their culture and heritage. But much early 20th-century media -- television and radio, for example -- was not saved. The Library of Alexandria -- an ancient center of learning containing a copy of every book in the world -- disappeared when it was burned to the ground.

Special projects include **OpenLibrary.org** (link to faq). 

Questions
**Where is my account?**

**How can I try out the new beta site?**

**Where are my bookmarks?**

**How can I remove a favorite?**

**Where is the upload button?**

**How can I provide feedback about the beta?**
          Beta Archive.org Site        
**Where is my account?**

          You can get to your account by clicking the "My Library" link in the black bar at the top of your screen.  You can log in and out here, as well as see your favorites (formerly called bookmarks), forum posts, and anything you've uploaded.  Please try adding a photo and bio!        

**How can I try out the new beta site?**

          Go to https://archive.org/v2 and you will be able to surf the archive.org web site in beta mode.  If you're in beta mode and you'd like to return to the old site, click the "Exit Beta" link in the black bar at the top of the site.        

**Where are my bookmarks?**

          Bookmarks are called Favorites now!  You can favorite collections, media items, searches and people on the new beta site.  To find the list of your favorites, click the My Library link in the black bar at the top of the site and then go to your favorite's list.         

**How can I remove a favorite?**

          Click the "My Library" link in the black bar at the top of the site, and then click to go into your favorites list.  Click "Remove items" in the upper right of the page, and then use the red "X" on each item to remove it.  Click "Remove items" again to turn off the functionality.        

**Where is the upload button?**

          You will find an upload link in the upper right corner of your account page (click "My Library" in the black bar at the top of the site), and on any collection page that you have permissions to upload into.        

**How can I provide feedback about the beta?**

          When you use the "EXIT BETA" link in the black bar on the top of the site, you will have an opportunity to give us feedback about the site.  You may also email info at archive dot org.        
Questions
**Where is the rest of the archived site?  Why am I getting broken or gray images on a site?**

**Can I link to old pages on the Wayback Machine?**

**Why isn't the site I'm looking for in the archive?**

**What does it mean when a site's archive data has been "updated"?**

**Who was involved in the creation of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine?**

**How was the Wayback Machine made?**

**How do you archive dynamic pages?**

**How large is the Wayback Machine?**

**Can I search the Archive?**

**How can I have my site's pages excluded from the Wayback Machine?**

**Why are some sites harder to archive than others?**

**How do you protect my privacy if you archive my site?**

**How do I contact the Internet Archive?**

**Some sites are not available because of robots.txt or other exclusions. What does that mean?**

**Why is the Internet Archive collecting sites from the Internet? What makes the information useful?**

**Do you archive email? Chat?**

**How can I get a copy of the pages on my Web site? If my site got hacked or damaged, could I get a backup from the Archive?'**

**Is there any personal information in these collections?**

**Can people download sites from the Wayback?**

**What type of machinery is used in this Internet Archive?**

**How does the Wayback Machine behave with Javascript turned off?**

**How did I end up on the live version of a site? or I clicked on X date, but now I am on Y date, how is that possible?  Why can I only see 930 out of the 2000 results?**

**Where does the name come from?**

**How do I cite Wayback Machine urls in MLA format?**

**What is the Wayback Machine?  How can I get my site included in the Wayback Machine?**

**What is the Archive-It service of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine?**

**How can I help the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine?**

**Do you collect all the sites on the Web?**

**Who has access to the collections? What about the public?**

**How can I get pages authenticated from the Wayback Machine?  How can use the pages in court?**

**What does 'failed connection' and other error messages mean?**

**What is the Wayback Machine's Copyright Policy?**
          The Wayback Machine        
**Where is the rest of the archived site?  Why am I getting broken or gray images on a site?**

          Broken images (when there is a small red "x" where the image should be) occur when the images are not available on our servers.  Usually this means that we did not archive them.  Gray images are the result of robots.txt exclusions.  The site in question may have blocked robot access to their images directory.
You can tell if the link you are looking for is in the Wayback Machine by entering the url into the Wayback Machine search box at archive.org (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php ).  Whatever archives we have are viewable in the Wayback Machine. 
The archived webpages are meant to be a "snap shot" of past Internet sites.  Please note that while we try to archive an entire site, this is not always possible.  That is why some images or links might be missing.  Additionally some sites do not archive well and we cannot fix that.  There is a list of common problems that make a site difficult to archive: http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#12. 
If you see a box with a red X or a broken image icon that means that we unfortunately do not have the images.   Files over 10MB are not archived in this "snap shot" of the website.  
The best way to see all the files we have archived of the site is:http://web.archive.org/*/www.yoursite.com/*
Please note that there is a 6 - 14 month lag time between the date a site is crawled and the date it appears in the Wayback Machine.

**Can I link to old pages on the Wayback Machine?**

          Yes!  The Wayback Machine is built so that it can be used and referenced.  If you find an archived page that you would like to reference on your Web page or in an article, you can copy the URL.  You can even use fuzzy URL matching and date specification... but that's a bit more advanced.        

**Why isn't the site I'm looking for in the archive?**

          Some sites may not be included because the automated crawlers were unaware of their existence at the time of the crawl.  It's also possible that some sites were not archived because they were password protected, blocked by robots.txt, or otherwise inaccessible to our automated systems.  Siteowners might have also requested that their sites be excluded from the Wayback Machine.  When this has occurred, you will see a "blocked site error" message. When a site is excluded because of robots.txt you will see a "robots.txt query exclusion error" message.        

**What does it mean when a site's archive data has been "updated"?**

          When our automated systems crawl the web every few months or so, we find that only about 50% of all pages on the web have changed from our previous visit.  This means that much of the content in our archive is duplicate material.  If you don't see ""*"" next to an archived document, then the content on the archived page is identical to the previously archived copy.        

**Who was involved in the creation of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine?**

          "The original idea for the Internet Archive Wayback Machine began in 1996, when the Internet Archive first began archiving the web.  Now, five years later, with over 100 terabytes and a dozen web crawls completed, the Internet Archive has made the Internet Archive Wayback Machine available to the public.  The Internet Archive has relied on donations of web crawls, technology, and expertise from Alexa Internet and others.  The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is owned and operated by the Internet Archive."        

**How was the Wayback Machine made?**

          Alexa Internet, in cooperation with the Internet Archive, has designed a three dimensional index that allows browsing of web documents over multiple time periods, and turned this unique feature into the Wayback Machine.        

**How do you archive dynamic pages?**

          There are many different kinds of dynamic pages, some of which are easily stored in an archive and some of which fall apart completely. When a dynamic page renders standard html, the archive works beautifully. When a dynamic page contains forms, JavaScript, or other elements that require interaction with the originating host, the archive will not contain the original site's functionality.        

**How large is the Wayback Machine?**

          As of December 1, 2014 the Internet Archive Wayback Machine contains almost 9 petabytes of data and is currently growing at a rate of ~20 terabytes per week.  This eclipses the amount of text contained in the world's largest libraries, including the Library of Congress.        

**Can I search the Archive?**

          Using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, it is possible to search for the names of sites contained in the Archive (URLs) and to specify date ranges for your search.  We hope to implement a full text search engine at some point in the future.         

**How can I have my site's pages excluded from the Wayback Machine?**

          You can exclude your site from display in the Wayback Machine by placing a simple robots.txt file on your Web server.

  Here are directions on how to automatically exclude your site.  If you cannot place the robots.txt file, opt not to, or have further questions, email us at [email protected].  If you are emailing to ask that your website not be archived, please note that you'll need to include the url (web address) in the text of your message.          

**Why are some sites harder to archive than others?**

          If you look at our collection of archived sites, you will find some broken pages, missing graphics, and some sites that aren't archived at all. Here are some things that make it difficult to archive a web site: - Robots.txt   -- We respect robot exclusion headers. 
- Javascript   -- Javascript elements are often hard to archive, but especially if they generate links without   having the full name in the page. Plus, if javascript needs to contact the originating   server in order to work, it will fail when archived. 
- Server   side image maps -- Like any functionality   on the web, if it needs to contact the originating   server in order to work, it will fail when   archived. 
- Unknown   sites -- The archive contains crawls of the   Web completed by Alexa Internet. If Alexa doesn't know about your site, it won't be   archived. Use the Alexa Toolbar (available   at  /www.alexa.com>www.alexa.com ),   and it will know about your page. Or you can   visit Alexa's Archive Your Site page at  /pages.alexa.com/help/webmasters/index.html#crawl_site>http://pages.alexa.com/help/webmasters/index.html#crawl_site .
- Orphan   pages -- If there are no links to your pages,   the robot won't find it (the robots don't enter queries in search boxes.) 
  As a general rule of thumb, simple html is the easiest to archive.        

**How do you protect my privacy if you archive my site?**

          The Archive collects Web pages that are publicly available the same ones that you might find as you surfed around the Web. We do not archive pages that require a password to access, pages tagged for "robot exclusion" by their owners, pages that are only accessible when a person types into and sends a form, or pages on secure servers. We also provide information on removing a site from the collections. Those who use the collections must agree to certain terms of use. |
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