Mission:
To provide library services to Internet users and develop technology and best practices for those services; to train information professionals and educate students to work in a digital environment; and to perform research.

Background:
The Internet Public Library (IPL) began in 1995 as a project in a graduate course at the University of Michigan's School of Information. Funded initially through foundation grants (notably from the W.K. Kellogg and Rockefeller foundations), corporate and individual gifts, and institutional supporters, the IPL now receives up to 1.5 million individual visits a month, about 35 percent from outside the United States, and thousands of reference questions; 40 percent of requests for help come from children. In June 2006, it became a consortium program of the emerging I-Schools Project, and this fall more than four hundred students and faculty from twelve graduate schools will participate in its reference, collection building, software development, and innovation lab activities.

Outstanding Web Feature:
The IPL supplies audio and video tours and search tools to explore its subject collections of Internet resources arranged by area of study, such as arts and humanities, business, education, and social sciences; special collections of original resources developed or hosted by the IPL; reading room with online books, magazines, and newspapers; and reference materials, including almanacs, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. In addition, the site provides information on using the IPL as a teaching tool, with resources for parents and teachers of secondary and primary school students, who will find KidSpace, TeenSpace, and the Science Fair Project Guide particularly useful. For those in need of more information, the IPL offers the Ask a Question reference service.