The new donation covers books on a range of subjects going

[shukla7789]

Back to the 1900s, said Liz Rosenberg, donations manager for the Internet Archive. There are volumes on historical and cultural analysis of drug use, policy and politics around drugs, pharmacological studies, and books specific to a particular drug. Titles now digitized include: Deadly medicine: Indians and alcohol in early America; Between prohibition and legalization : the Dutch experiment in drug policy; Pain, analgesia, and addiction: the pharmacologic treatment of pain; and Meth wars : police, media, power.

The public has responded with curiosity. In January, 10,000 items were accessed in the digitized collection. Rosenberg photo restoration service the audience is likely researchers, historians, healthcare providers, and policymakers.


Resource guide developed for the collection.
In the rapidly evolving field of drug policy, which spans many disciplines, Netherland said it’s important to provide evidence-based information to the public. The hope is to enhance advocacy efforts with easier access to the organization’s collection. DPA developed a resource guide to encourage its use on the Internet Archive.

In donating its collection, DPA helped build the Internet Archive’s SALIS collection. Since 2008, SALIS has helped preserve thousands of items from physical libraries with research from drug and alcohol fields that have closed, said Andrea Mitchell, SALIS executive director.

About 30 years ago, there were approximately 95 libraries, clearinghouses, and resource centers around the world devoted to collecting, cataloguing, and disseminating information concerning alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, Mitchell said. However, today the majority of those libraries or databases have closed. The U.S. government has also shut down collections, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, whose library went back to 1935. “We’re losing important resources and knowledge,” Mitchell said.

This leaves a void in access that has been filled, in part, by digitized collections online. Mitchell said The SALIS Collection includes materials that go back to 1774 and books from medicine, sociology, psychology, economics, law and policy, criminal justice, and other fields. In addition to books, there are government documents, grey literature, and newsletters.

The DPA collection was one of the larger libraries in the U.S., Mitchell said, and its donation to the Internet Archive is significant and welcome.

The Internet Archive is interested in receiving more curated collections like DPA’s on specific subject matters, Rosenberg added. “These really valuable books for research and resources are often not preserved when funding is lost at the library that houses them,” she saidTo find out more about the physical item donation process, go to the Help page for details.