About

Why we mirror.

The Hessel Digital Library is a digital preservation initiative of Hessel Digital LLC. We identify collections that are legally in the public domain but live on a single institutional server, one budget cycle or one URL redesign away from disappearing, and mirror them to the Internet Archive, where they gain redundant storage, permanent identifiers, and free public access.

The method

Every item is mirrored bit-exact: files are fetched from the original institution and uploaded unmodified. We never re-encode, watermark, or “improve” archival media. If the original server serves an MP3, that MP3 is what you get here, byte for byte.

Every item's metadata records the complete chain of custody:

• Source URL: the original institutional record
• Fetch date: when the copy was taken
• Bit-exact statement: what was (and was not) done to the file
• Rights basis: the specific statute under which the work is public domain
• Credits: the institution that digitized or produced the work

Rights policy

We mirror only works that are unambiguously in the public domain, on two bases:

• U.S. federal government works: no copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 105 (Yellowstone Sound Library; Ocean Exploration Archive)
• Historical sound recordings: entered the public domain under the Music Modernization Act, 17 U.S.C. § 1401 (National Jukebox mirror; recordings published more than 100 years ago)

We do not mirror works under license from living rights-holders, works with unclear chains of title, or collections that the original institution continues to distribute under its own sustainable access program. When the original institution asks us to link rather than mirror, we link.

Corrections and contact

If you find an error in a record (a mistyped title, a wrong date, a broken cross-reference), it will be fixed. The fastest way to reach a person is the message button on our archive.org account page; every item record also links back to its source institution, who we will notify on request.

Accessibility

This site targets WCAG 2.1 AA. See our full accessibility statement.

On stability

This site is intentionally boring technology: static HTML, no tracking, no cookies, no build pipeline, and exactly zero third-party scripts. The search you use queries archive.org directly from your browser. The site's only moving parts are the Internet Archive's own public APIs.