How do I make this type of playlist on the Internet Archive?

June 4, 2023 12:52 PM

I am uploading a bunch of scans of a particular magazine to the Internet Archive, and I'd like to have them all together on a page like this. I'd search the FAQ, but I don't even know what this kind of layout is called. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.
posted by themanwho to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I believe what you want to make is a collection, which the admins can help you set up.
posted by Inkslinger at 3:29 PM on June 4, 2023

Best answer: That's just an "item". IA has items and collections. An item can contain multiple files and lets you browse through them. If you upload a similar file format (cbr or pdf) you should get a similar navigation interface to that.
posted by joeyh at 3:31 PM on June 4, 2023

Best answer: Seconding joeyh: it's an item. If you look at the "Show All" directory listing, you'll see that all of the CBRs were uploaded on Nov 1st, when the system finally finished processing them into other formats.

I would recommend against uploading in this format, please. It is very difficult to find individual issues in one of these big blobs o' files. Try finding "BUGS BUNNY, #35, Feb-Mar, 1954. Dell Publishing" or similar on Internet Archive: you can't, because it's hidden away in the Assorted comics part 3 item blob.

If you upload the issues individually with some basic metadata, Internet Archive will group related ones together. For example, here are some individual issues of (very nerdy) serial publications I've uploaded:

• Atom Users' Group Canada Oak Leaves Newsletter #5
• ABUG Newsletter, Issue 16, 1984-05
• The Canadian Amateur magazine, 2015-09

All of these are individually findable, with searchable text (up to the limits of OCR of ancient dot-matrix newsletter printing). At the bottom of each item, there's a "Similar Items" bar that is full of all the other related items. I didn't even have to create the Canadian Amateur Magazine collection, as Jason Scott picked up on my uploads and grouped the items himself.

Uploading individual issues is a pain through the web interface. The Command-Line Interface has a bit (okay, a lot) of a learning curve but can automate the process. I'm happy to help with this, or even upload all of your scans for you. Memail me.
posted by scruss at 8:18 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Looks like I messed that up a bit: when I said "all of the CBRs were uploaded on Nov 1st", I meant to add that the processing finished around Nov 27th. So it took nearly a month for Internet Archive to process this huge item, during which time the content can't be browsed
posted by scruss at 10:14 AM on June 7, 2023