We build open source tools used at Harvard and beyond that preserve and expand access to knowledge.
Learn more about the lab on the LIL website.
Our Projects
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Perma.cc
Perma.cc helps scholars, journals, courts, and others create permanent records of the web sources they cite.
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H2O Open Casebook
H2O is a platform for creating, sharing, and remixing open course materials.
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Caselaw Access Project
The Caselaw Access Project offers free, public access to over 6.5 million decisions published by state and federal courts throughout U.S. history.
Our Team
Read our staff bios on the LIL website.
Christian Smith
Software Engineering Manager
Christian discovered the craft of research when his open source work with cryptography led to academic collaboration and an engineering role at MIT. Years prior he witnessed the impact of technology on law as a student at Berklee College of Music, when dotcom era file-sharing networks disrupted the music industry. At LIL, he aims to empower the engineering team, help invent breakthrough library tools, and improve access to justice.
Research Fellows
- Katy Gero
- Jim Cowie
- Max Neely-Cohen
LIL Blog Posts
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Expanding Our Public Data Project to Include Smithsonian Collections Data
Smithsonian Institution building, from Wikimedia Commons
September 18, 2025
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Live and Let Die: Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving, Memory, and Forgetting Through a Library Lens
August 20, 2025
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LIL Awarded AALL Public Access to Government Information Award
This past week members of the Library Innovation Lab team traveled to Portland, Oregon to receive the Public Access to Government Information Award from AALL for our data.gov archive.
July 30, 2025