The BitTorrent protocol is now the fastest way to download items from the Archive, because the BitTorrent client downloads simultaneously from two different Archive servers located in two different datacenters, as well as from other people who have downloaded these torrents already. The distributed nature of BitTorrent swarms and their ability to retrieve torrents from local peers may be of particular value to patrons with slower access to the Archive.

When a torrent is available, you will see a "Torrent" link near the bottom of the download box in the top left corner of the item page. You can even track our BitTorrent statistics if you'd like.

There are many BitTorrent clients to choose from, but we have particularly tested this phase of the project using Transmission, µTorrent, and Vuze.

We know you'll have lots of questions, so please take a look at the FAQs for this project, or post a question in the forum below.

Thank you, BitTorrent community, for evolving such a valuable technology for the rapid, reliable, and resilient distribution of large numbers of files!