Events

Brewster Kahle at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen on 4 September

/ / Digital Rights for Libraries, Events

Digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, will deliver a public lecture introducing Internet Archive Europe in Copenhagen on Thursday, September 4, 2025, from 13:00 to 14:15 CET. The event will take place at the Royal Danish Library, Karen Blixens Plads 7, Grand Lobby, Copenhagen.

📢 Register here to attend the event.

Brewster Kahle and Universal Access to All Knowledge

Brewster Kahle has dedicated his career to creating a digital library accessible to all, preserving over 145+ petabytes of data—including books, web pages, music, television, and software. The Internet Archive collaborates with 1,200+ library and university partners worldwide to safeguard cultural heritage and enhance public access to knowledge.

Internet Archive Europe, a Dutch foundation established in 2004, expands this mission of Universal Access to All Knowledge through partnerships with European libraries, museums, and archives, working to safeguard digital heritage for the long term. 

Introducing Internet Archive Europe to Denmark

As Internet Archive Europe deepens its collaborations across the continent, this lecture brings its mission into focus for a Danish audience. Brewster will share how collaborations can build a shared infrastructure for digital preservation across borders.

Key discussion topics will include:

  • Building partnerships between Internet Archive Europe and mission-aligned European cultural and research organisations.
  • Exploring how AI can be used to “bring collections to life” for researchers, patrons, and the public.
  • Addressing the unique opportunities and challenges of digital libraries in the European context.
  • Enhancing the accessibility and visibility of cultural heritage collections through collaborative innovation.

A Public Dialogue on the Future of Digital Memory

Co-hosted by DALOSS and Royal Danish Library, this event invites academics, librarians, policymakers, and the public to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing Europe’s digital future.

đź“… Event Details:
 đź“Ť Location: Royal Danish Library, Karen Blixens Plads 7, Grand Lobby, Copenhagen
🕓 Date & Time: Thursday, September 4, 2025 | 13:00 – 14:15 CET
đź”— Register here and check here for more information

 đź—Łď¸Ź Language: English 🇬🇧

This is a unique opportunity to engage in a forward-looking discussion on AI, open access, and cultural heritage with one of the leading voices in the field of digital preservation.

Brewster Kahle at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen on 4 September Read Post »

Celebrate European Public Domain Day 2026

/ / Events, Public Domain

đź“… Date: September 30, 2025 – Call for Contributions Deadline
đź“… Date: January 15, 2026 – European Public Domain Day 2026
đź“Ť Location: Royal Library of Belgium, in Brussels
🔗 Call For Contributions Form 

A bee on a bicycle, drawing from “Le calendrier de l’apiculteur”, C. Arnould, 1908.

European Public Domain Day: Call to Contributions 

We are thrilled to announce the opening of the Call for Contributions for the European Public Domain Day 2026! 

On the 15th of January 2026, we will celebrate the Public Domain Day at the Royal Library of Belgium, in Brussels. Together with Scholars, Advocates, Policy-Makers and Practitioners, we look at the Public Domain, and how we collectively can continue to protect it. 

The European Public Domain Day is a conference co-organised by COMMUNIA, Meemoo, Wikimedia Europe, Wikimedia Belgium, Europeana Foundation, Creative Commons, Internet Archive Europe, CREATE, the Royal Library of Belgium and Open Nederland & by the Community Members.

For the first time, the alliance has opened a Call for Contributions aimed at Professionals of the Cultural Heritage Institutions and Advocates to contribute to this day! We want to hear new voices, discover new topics and have a better representation of the activities all over Europe through lightning talks & presentations. This call only applies to the European Track for the afternoon sessions. 

Could this be you? Propose your lightning talks or presentations via this form. 

The Call to Contributions is open until September 30th 2025. 

If you have any questions, please, contact Camille Françoise 

🧭 Why This Matters

The European Public Domain Day 2026 is a crucial event for celebrating and advocating the Public Domain, by fostering creativity and access to knowledge. Uniting scholars, advocates, and policy-makers, this event aims to enhance efforts to protect and promote the Public Domain across Europe. The Call for Contributions invites professionals to celebrate and protect the Public Domain.

Celebrate European Public Domain Day 2026 Read Post »

AI for Public Good @PublicSpaces: From Hype to Humanity

/ / Events, Public AI

Forget the dystopias and sci-fi. At this panel, the message was clear: AI, when done right, can serve people, not just profits.

“AI is applied statistics on steroids… with a serious marketing spin,” quipped Caroline de Cock, setting the tone for a no-nonsense, myth-busting panel on how AI can serve sustainability, culture, and society. She urged the audience to ditch the Silicon Valley glitz and look at AI like the Dutch polder model: “No one really knows how it works, but the dykes hold, and our feet stay dry.”

🔍 What Happens When Archives Meet Algorithms?

Jeff Ubois from the Internet Archive Europe Board delivered a wake-up call: the previously overlooked corners of digital preservation are now prime real estate for AI training.

“Archives have become relevant, not so much to humans, but to AI.”

He warned about the erasure of inconvenient data—climate, health, economic—being flushed down “Orwell’s memory hole,” while stressing the need for broad access to high-quality information to train AI in the public interest.

“Do you want your doctor’s AI trained on all human medical knowledge, or just what’s fully licensed and easy to access?”

🏗️ Build Public, Not Just Private AI

Ben Cerveny from the Foundation for Public Code flipped the narrative from tech disruption to tech integration. In his words:

“People invent things and call them technology. If they work, they become infrastructure.”

Ben’s vision? A future where cities, libraries, and schools have their own public models: transparent, accountable, and locally tuned.

“A public model should be a public asset—with governance, values, and sustainable funding baked in.”

Dr. Lucie Chateau speaks at AI for Public Good Panel – PublicSpaces Conference 2025: Shaping Our Digital Future – Photo by Lotte Dale

🌍 The Global Majority Needs a Seat at the Table

Dr. Lucie Chateau from Utrecht University’s Inclusive AI Lab stressed the importance of looking beyond Western AI narratives.

“90% of young people live in the Global South. They’re not just data points. They’re creators.”

She introduced groundbreaking work in building regional language models and ethnographic research showing how AI is being joyfully and creatively adopted across India and Africa.

🌱 Climate GPT: AI vs. Our Biggest Crisis

Then came Daniel Erasmus, who cut through AI hysteria with a clear call to arms:

“The peril isn’t AI. It’s climate change.”

He showcased ClimateGPT, a lightweight, renewable-powered model trained to help tackle climate adaptation and resilience. It’s already being used for everything from judging sustainability awards to helping map the impact of extreme weather in real-time.

“We don’t need smarter things. We need better decisions.”

đź’ˇ Takeaways

  • Archives matter not just for memory, but for justice and data equity.
  • Europe must build public AI infrastructure, not just regulate private ones.
  • Inclusion means participation: AI from and for the Global South is essential.
  • Climate tech can’t wait, and smaller, focused models are more sustainable and actionable.
  • System prompts = ethics by design: who should decide what your AI thinks?

As one audience member asked, could we one day replace politicians with AI trained on party manifestos?

“No,” came the quick answer. “But we can use AI to make better, more informed decisions.”

That’s the future this panel believes in: grounded, democratic, and just smart enough.

Check out the full recording of the panel here: https://conference.publicspaces.net/session/ai-for-the-public-good

The photo’s of the conference are online now on https://publicspaces.net/2025/06/25/fotos-van-de-publicspaces-conferentie-2025-shaping-our-digital-future/

AI for Public Good @PublicSpaces: From Hype to Humanity Read Post »

Protecting the Past to Power the Future: Internet Archive Europe Launches the Our Future Memory Campaign

/ / Digital Rights for Libraries, Events, Press

Today marks a defining moment in the fight for digital rights in cultural heritage. From the shores of Lake Geneva, where minds have long gathered to shape the future of knowledge, Internet Archive Europe proudly announces the launch of Our Future Memory, a global campaign dedicated to safeguarding the digital rights of libraries, archives, and museums worldwide.

The timing could not be more deliberate. As we speak at the LIBER 2025 Annual Conference, surrounded by Europe’s leading library professionals, we are witnessing firsthand the urgency that drives this initiative. The “Four Rights for Libraries” panel session today, moderated by our own Jeff Ubois alongside distinguished speakers Justus Dreyling from COMMUNIA, Caroline De Cock from information labs, and Peter Routhier from Internet Archive, has crystallised what many of us have felt for years: the digital transformation has fundamentally altered the landscape for memory institutions, and not always for the better.

The Challenge We Face

While technology has promised universal access to human knowledge, many libraries today find themselves with fewer practical ways to fulfill their historic mission than they had decades ago. 

The shift from owning physical materials to licensing digital content has created an unprecedented crisis. License agreements routinely prohibit preservation activities that were once standard practice. Materials that exist only in digital formats often remain locked behind commercial platforms that restrict the very institutions meant to preserve them for future generations.

This is not merely a technical problem, it is a fundamental threat to the democratic principle that knowledge should be accessible to all, regardless of economic means or geographic location.

Our Response: Four Essential Rights

The Our Future Memory campaign centers on a simple premise: memory institutions must retain online the same rights and responsibilities they have historically exercised offline. To achieve this, we have articulated four fundamental digital rights:

  1. The Right to Collect materials in digital form, whether through digitisation, open market purchases, or other legal means. This includes content that exists only in streaming formats or behind platform restrictions.
  2. The Right to Preserve digital materials through backup, repair, and reformatting activities essential for long-term access. Without this right, today’s digital culture risks becoming tomorrow’s digital dark age.
  3. The Right to Lend digital content under traditional library conditions, maintaining the balanced approach to access that has served communities for centuries.
  4. The Right to Cooperate through sharing and transferring digital collections among institutions, ensuring that resource constraints do not create information deserts.

Building Momentum

The campaign has already gained remarkable traction. Since its initial signing in Aruba in April 2024, institutions across the globe have endorsed the statement. From the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to the National Library of Serbia, from cultural organisations in Belgrade to public libraries throughout the Balkans, a diverse coalition is emerging.

This geographic and institutional diversity reflects a crucial truth: the challenges facing memory institutions transcend national boundaries and organisational types. The digitisation of culture affects us all, and our response must be equally comprehensive.

Why This Matters Now

The stakes extend far beyond library operations. Authors, researchers, journalists, and creators of all kinds depend on the sustained availability of cultural materials that only memory institutions preserve without regard to commercial viability. Future historians will judge us by how well we maintained access to the intellectual heritage of our time.

Join the Movement

Whether you lead a major research library or manage a small community archive, whether you work in policy development or daily patron services, your voice matters in this conversation.

We invite you to take action:

  • Sign the Statement: If you represent a memory institution or support organisation, visit ourfuturememory.org to learn about our verification process and add your endorsement.
  • Engage Your Community: Share this message with colleagues, board members, and stakeholders. The more voices we gather, the stronger our collective impact becomes.
  • Connect With Us: Follow our progress and join ongoing conversations about digital rights and cultural preservation.

From Lausanne today, we launch not just a campaign but a commitment to future generations. The memory institutions that have faithfully preserved human knowledge through countless technological transitions will continue to do so in the digital age, but only if we act with purpose and urgency.

Our future memory depends on the choices we make today. Join us in making them count.

Learn more about our work and the Our Future Memory campaign at ourfuturememory.org.

Protecting the Past to Power the Future: Internet Archive Europe Launches the Our Future Memory Campaign Read Post »

Internet Archive Europe Joins LIBER 2025 Panel on “Four Rights for Libraries”

/ / Digital Rights for Libraries, Events

đź“… Date: Friday, 4 July 2025
🕚 Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
📍 Location: Anthropole Building – Room 1031, Lausanne

We are proud to announce that Internet Archive Europe will be participating in this year’s LIBER 2025 Annual Conference as part of a powerful and timely panel titled “Four Rights for Libraries.” Moderated by our very own Jeff Ubois, this session brings together legal and policy experts from across Europe to spotlight how the rights long exercised by libraries are being eroded in the digital realm—and what we can do about it.

đź“š Defending Library Rights in a Digital-Only World

The shift from owning physical materials to licensing digital content has created unprecedented challenges for libraries. License agreements often prohibit the preservation of digital works, making access to in-copyright but out-of-commerce materials a legal grey zone, or outright impossible. These barriers threaten not only long-term preservation efforts but also the principles of equitable access to knowledge and culture.

At LIBER 2025, our panel will explore these challenges and outline a proactive framework for securing Four Essential Rights for libraries:

  1. The Right to Collect: Enable libraries to acquire digital materials—regardless of format or delivery mechanism—through legal means, including streaming-only content and open-market purchases.
  2. The Right to Preserve: Guarantee that libraries can preserve, repair, and reformat digital content to ensure long-term access.
  3. The Right to Lend: Uphold libraries’ ability to lend digital content under fair and traditional conditions, such as one-person-at-a-time access.
  4. The Right to Cooperate: Allow for sharing and transferring digital collections among libraries to support underserved communities and global equity in access.

These principles are not merely aspirational. Governments, associations, and institutions are beginning to adopt them. For instance, the Government of Aruba has already endorsed this framework (read more), with similar commitments under consideration across the globe.

🎤 Meet the Panel

This panel brings together some of the most forward-thinking minds working at the intersection of policy, law, and digital access:

🔍 A Look Ahead: Building on LIBER’s Legacy

This session builds on LIBER’s longstanding commitment to digital knowledge access, including its signing of the Hague Declaration on Knowledge Discovery in the Digital Age (read more). By spotlighting current threats and proposing practical solutions, the “Four Rights for Libraries” panel aims to renew and expand that legacy for future generations.

🧭 Why This Matters

As more cultural works are born digital or digitally restricted, libraries must be empowered—not shackled—by the law. This panel offers a vision for a future where libraries can fulfill their essential public mission: preserving knowledge and making it available to all.

We look forward to seeing you in Lausanne. Join us to be part of the movement shaping the digital rights of libraries worldwide.

Internet Archive Europe Joins LIBER 2025 Panel on “Four Rights for Libraries” Read Post »

Internet Archive Europe at PublicSpaces Conference: AI for the Public Good

/ / Events, Public AI

Internet Archive Europe is proud to participate in the upcoming PublicSpaces Conference in Amsterdam, joining a pivotal session on “AI for the Public Good” taking place on June 13, 2025. This session brings together leading voices in the field to explore how artificial intelligence can serve the public interest rather than narrow commercial goals.

Exploring Public-Interest AI

An academic for the Inclusive AI Lab of the Utrecht University and three Advisors of Internet Archive Europe will speak during the session, each bringing a unique perspective and expertise:

  • Jeff Ubois will set the stage by outlining some of the links between AI, digital preservation, and support public benefit initiatives—highlighting the challenges and opportunities we face in ensuring long term access to digital information. 
  • Daniel Erasmus will present ClimateGPT, a case study of how large language models can be harnessed to enhance decision-making about climate change, a pressing global concern that demands innovative, collaborative solutions.
  • Ben Cerveny will talk about AI as digital public infrastructure in various domains, and how the public sector might successfully build and maintain such resources
  • Lucie Chateau will bring a vital global lens, discussing how AI systems can be inclusive by design and look beyond EU-centric models. She will highlight the importance of ensuring AI policy and development also address the realities and innovations emerging from the Global South.

The panel will be moderated by Caroline De Cock, Head of Research of information labs.

Join the Conversation

As questions of control, access, and accountability in AI systems become ever more pressing, this session invites policymakers, technologists, civil society, and the public to rethink how AI can serve shared societal goals.

đź“…  When: June 13, 2025 – 15:15-16:10 @ IJzaal
 đź“Ť Where: PublicSpaces Conference, Pakhuis De Zwijger, Amsterdam
đź”— More info & registration: conference.publicspaces.net/en/session/ai-for-the-public-good

Let’s explore how to build AI systems that empower communities, preserve knowledge, and strengthen public infrastructures. Join us for this timely and important discussion.

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