Jun 8, 2011 12:32 GMT  ·  By

The Internet Archive is well known for its effort to archive the web and maintain copies of all websites online, working snapshots taken at various points during their existence. But the organization has a wider reach, it archives music and video and more recently books as well.

But, despite being a project linked to the digital realm, par excellence, the group is also leading an effort to archive physical objects and has now started storing the books it digitizes as well, for long-term preservation.

"We have determined that we will keep a copy of the books we digitize if they are not returned to another library. Since we are interested in scanning one copy of every book ever published, we are starting to collect as many books as we can," the Internet Archive announced.

"Internet Archive is building a physical archive for the long term preservation of one copy of every book, record, and movie we are able to attract or acquire," it went on to explain.

The ultimate goal is to have a digitized copy of every book ever published, there are close to 100 million books in existence, as far as the best estimates can determine, but also to have a physical copy of as many books as possible.

The group realizes that it would be close to impossible to have a copy of every book ever made, especially since there are few copies of many titles, so it's shooting for something around 10 million books, which it says is what a world-class library has today.

The Internet Archive already has experience with archiving, but the books project is the most ambitious yet. The books will be housed in storage containers with a controlled environment ensuring that they survive the ages.

The group also details the reasoning behind the decision and reveals that others digitizing books have little interest in preserving the books once they've scanned them, even the libraries involved.