Public Domain

This autumn, the Internet Archive reached a milestone that belongs to all of us: 1 trillion web pages preserved through the Wayback Machine. That’s 1 trillion glimpses into our shared digital memory — from the early homepages of the 1990s to the voices of today’s communities across the world.

As the Internet Archive marks this extraordinary achievement on 22 October in San Francisco, we invite libraries, archives, and cultural institutions across Europe to celebrate their role in making the web’s history accessible to everyone.

A Global Mission Rooted in Local Efforts

When the Internet Archive launched in 1996 with the goal of “building a digital library for the future,” few could have imagined the scale of the mission ahead. Nearly three decades later, the Wayback Machine has become one of the most widely used digital preservation tools in the world, capturing billions of web pages every month.

Each of those pages tells a story — of innovation, creativity, culture, and community. And behind every snapshot lies the dedication of institutions committed to safeguarding knowledge.

Across Europe, libraries have been at the forefront of this work: archiving national domains, documenting local histories, and ensuring that the diverse voices of our continent are not lost to time.

Europe’s Role in Preserving the Web

European institutions have long been pioneers in digital preservation — from the UK Web Archive and Bibliothèque nationale de France to Netarkivet in Denmark and numerous national and university projects across the continent.

Their collaborative spirit mirrors the Internet Archive’s mission: universal access to knowledge. Together, they ensure that Europe’s web — multilingual, culturally rich, and constantly evolving — remains accessible to researchers, journalists, and citizens for generations to come.

Celebrating the Libraries That Keep Memory Alive

To help libraries and archives join in this once-in-a-generation milestone, the Internet Archive has released a Resource Guide filled with practical tools and ideas.

It includes ready-to-use materials such as:

• Social media templates and visuals
• Event ideas and workshop guides
• Impact stories from institutions worldwide

Ways Your Library Can Celebrate

Explore your community’s digital history. And help us write the next chapter of the web’s story — one page at a time.

• Share your favorite archived webpage using hashtag #Wayback1T.
• Create a “Then/Now” image for your library’s web site using our free Canva template.
• Record a short video answering the question: “Why is the Wayback Machine important to you?”

As we look ahead to the next trillion, Internet Archive Europe invites libraries, cultural heritage institutions, and communities to continue working together to preserve the web, celebrate digital memory, and keep knowledge alive.

On September 17th, we were proud to unveil a new way to interact with digital history at the KB, the National Library of the Netherlands. Our new interactive installation, “Websites van Nederland: explore the web of the past,” is now open to the public, offering a playful and profound journey into the Dutch internet archive.

The response has been fantastic, affirming our belief that this machine is more than just a tool. As we noted at the launch, it’s a tangible expression of our vision to place our collective memory directly at each individual’s fingertips, demonstrating how digital preservation is not about storing data in the abstract, but about making the richness of the past immediately usable, searchable, and alive.

A Universe of Dutch Culture

The installation immerses visitors in a visual galaxy of 85,000 Dutch websites, drawn from over 1.2 million archived snapshots captured between 1996 and 2025. Using a physical joystick and buttons, visitors can fly through this vast digital universe, discovering the incredible diversity of the nation’s web landscape. The gamified experience encourages curiosity, while powerful voice search allows users to pinpoint specific topics or domains.

A Time Machine at Your Fingertips

Beyond exploring the sheer vastness of the archive, the installation is a powerful time machine. Visitors can select any website and instantly replay its history, flipping through archived versions to watch it evolve over the years. This feature makes the concept of a web archive tangible, showing how websites lived, breathed, and changed. To make the experience personal, a QR code lets visitors send any discovered website directly to their mobile phone to explore further.

A Blueprint for Europe’s Digital Heritage

While this first installation celebrates the Dutch web, it serves as a powerful blueprint for all of Europe. The technology and concept behind “Websites van Nederland” are designed to be adaptable. Imagine a “Websites of France” in Paris, or a “Websites of Italy” engaging visitors in Rome.

This is central to Internet Archive Europe’s mission. We aim to create engaging ways for citizens across the continent to connect with their own unique digital histories. This project shows that it’s possible to transform national web archives from static repositories into dynamic, interactive public experiences.

This is what “bringing collections to life” truly means. By connecting people with the traces of their own digital past, we empower them to understand the present and imagine the future. We believe this is essential work to ensure Europe’s digital memory is not only safeguarded, but also activated, accessible, and meaningful to all.

We invite you to visit the KB and experience “Websites van Nederland” for yourself. The installation will be on display until 11 October, culminating in The Hague’s Museum Night. Come and play with the past!

Photo credits featured image: “Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Marleen Stikker & Brewster Kahle at the KB” by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 4.0

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

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.