Our Institutional Access Program is designed for universities, libraries, research organizations, and educational networks that want to provide their students and staff with seamless access to digital texts, primary sources, and curated research materials. We believe that knowledge should be open and widely shared, but we also understand that institutions often need dedicated access features, usage support, and enhanced tools to serve large and diverse audiences. This page outlines how your organization can benefit.
Who Can Apply for Institutional Access?
Institutional access is open to:
- Universities & Colleges – Expand your digital library holdings with primary source documents, rare e-books, and research-grade publications.
- Schools & Educators – Provide teachers and students with carefully curated educational texts and guides aligned with learning goals.
- Libraries (Public & Academic) – Offer patrons a user-friendly way to explore historical documents, research reports, and free e-books.
- Research Centers & Think Tanks – Gain easy reference to unique reports, investigative archives, and specialized historical material.
- Nonprofits & Cultural Institutions – Museums, archives, and NGOs can integrate our resources into their education and outreach programs.
Benefits of Institutional Access
While many of our resources are available free to the public, institutional partners receive additional benefits that enhance usability and reliability:
- Dedicated Access Gateway – Branded portal for your organization with direct log-in or IP-based access.
- Bulk Content Availability – Easy integration of large text collections for teaching, research, and archiving.
- Advanced Search & Metadata Tools – Better navigation across categories like Historical Documents, Original Publications, and upcoming Research Portal datasets.
- Citation-Ready Formats – PDFs, ePub, and other downloadable formats optimized for academic referencing.
- Usage Guidance & Support – Dedicated help for librarians and educators to integrate materials into coursework or catalogs.
- Early Access to New Publications – Institutional members can preview and request upcoming texts before public release.
- Compliance & Licensing Clarity – Documentation confirming public-domain or fair-use status for applicable texts, as well as usage guidelines for proprietary works.
How Institutions Use Our Resources
Institutions worldwide leverage our platform in several ways:
- Digital Learning Integration: Professors link primary sources directly to their syllabi or online learning systems.
- Research Projects: Scholars cite our digitized archives in academic papers and use our contextual notes as reference points.
- Library Collections: Libraries incorporate our materials into discovery layers, making them searchable alongside their catalogs.
- Public Programming: Museums and nonprofits use our historical e-books for exhibitions, lectures, and outreach campaigns.
Pricing & Licensing
Many of our core resources remain open access. However, some specialized features and support services for institutions require licensing or cost-sharing to maintain and expand the archive. Institutional access models include IP-based access (campus-wide), library consortium agreements, custom portals for multi-campus systems, and one-time archival collection licensing. Pricing varies depending on the size and needs of your institution. We aim to keep costs reasonable while sustaining the ongoing digitization and curation of historical materials.
Partnering with Us
If your institution wants to explore collaboration beyond simple access — such as contributing digitized materials, co-publishing research, or sponsoring preservation projects — we welcome partnerships. Many of our Historical Documents and Original Publications sections include contributions from universities and archives worldwide.
How to Get Started
To inquire about institutional access, email [email protected] (include “Institutional Access” in the subject line). Provide your organization name, size (students/faculty or patrons), and the type of resources you’re most interested in. Our team will respond with available options and next steps within 3–5 business days.
Our Commitment to Open Knowledge
We believe institutional access should enhance, not restrict, the free flow of information. Public sections of our site will remain free for all visitors. Institutional access exists to provide better integration, reliability, and advanced tools for organizations that need them. Our mission is simple: to preserve and share knowledge across borders and generations. By partnering with institutions, we can make historical documents and educational e-books available to a wider audience — responsibly and sustainably.