How to read a yearbook scan on the Internet Archive

Most of the books on this site come from the Internet Archive, and every person page links to the page of the scan where the name was printed. The scans are good, but the reader can be confusing the first time you use it, and the text recognition behind the search is often wrong. This guide shows how to read a yearbook scan, link to a page, check a name against the image, and get the full-resolution page.

The parts of an item page

Each book is an "item" with an identifier in the address, for example archive.org/details/cambridgehighlat1928unse. On the item page you will see:

The reader: the book, one page or two at a time, with zoom, a full-screen button and a search-inside box.
The description: publisher, date, and the library that scanned it. The date field is the library's catalog entry. For a yearbook it can be wrong, so check the cover and title page of the scan itself, and read the year printed there.
Download options: a list of file types. Which ones you see depends on the book. Common ones are PDF, "Full Text" and, for many scanned books, a ZIP of single-page JP2 images.

Steps to read a page

Open the person's page here and click "View the original scan at the Internet Archive". The link goes straight to the right page, and the address ends in /page/n and a number.
Use full screen, and zoom until the small capitals are readable. Names are small, and some books set them in italic or capitals.
Move to the next and previous pages with the arrows. A senior's entry may continue on the facing page.
Read the name, any nickname and the details on the page, and compare them with what our page shows. If our page is wrong, tell us.
To search the whole book, use the search-inside box in the reader. If it finds nothing, try a different spelling or the first letters of the name, because the recognized text is imperfect.

The page number in the address

The number after /page/n counts the images in the scan from the front of the file. It is not the number printed on the page. The cover, endpapers and unnumbered photograph pages come first, so image 42 may carry the printed number 34, or none. When you cite a page, say which kind you mean, or give both. On our pages, "page" is the position in the scan, and so matches the number in the link.

Getting the full-resolution page

The reader shows a reduced image. For the best quality you have a few options, depending on what the item offers:

The PDF gives every page at moderate resolution. It is the easiest download, and fine for reading and printing.
The JP2 ZIP (listed in Download options as a single-page JP2 ZIP, when present) holds one JPEG 2000 image per page at the scan's higher resolution. It is large, often tens of megabytes. Open it with a program that reads JPEG 2000 (macOS Preview does), or convert the page to JPEG.
A single page from the ZIP. You can fetch one image without downloading the whole archive. Use the ZIP's address followed by the path of the file inside it. For example, image 42 of an item can be reached at https://archive.org/download/ITEM/ITEM_jp2.zip/ITEM_jp2/ITEM_0042.jp2, where ITEM is the item's identifier. The file number usually matches the number in the page link, but always look at the picture to be sure you have the page you meant.
If you are stuck, write to us. If your relative is on one of our pages, we will gladly send the full-resolution scan of the page.

Text recognition is not the page

The "Full Text" file and the search results come from automatic recognition. In a yearbook it is poor for names set in italic, small capitals or on a patterned background, and good for plain running text. That is why a surname can be present on the page and still not turn up in a search. Always confirm a name on the image. We treat the page image as the authority, and every name here was checked against it.

Borrow-only books

Some books are lent rather than offered for download: you log in with a free account and read them page by page for a limited time. That is the library's choice of lending method. It is not a statement about copyright; see are old yearbooks public domain?

Reuse and credit

For a book published in 1930 or earlier in the United States, the pages are in the public domain. For 1931 to 1945 we do not make that claim, and you should check before you post a whole book. Credit the library that scanned the book as a courtesy: each person page here names it under Source. For citing the page in a family tree, see how to cite a yearbook.

Last checked 20 October 2026.