In 1992, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill developed SunSITE.unc.edu, which was to be an archive and an information sharing project for the public. It was funded by grants from Sun Microsystems, and thus the name. The relationship with Sun came to an end (an amicable one, according to the ibiblio FAQ; the change in name was for a "vendor-neutral name that expressed what our project has evolved into over the years"[4]) and the name was changed to MetaLab. It collaborated with various sources, including academic institutions, corporations, and information technology entrepreneurs.
Also in 1992, sunsite.unc.edu became one of the first web sites on the internet. Today, it is still the host for a copy of the oldest web page known in history.[5]
In September 2000, MetaLab began to collaborate with the Center for the Public Domain; the name was changed to ibiblio to reflect the goal of being "the public's library and digital archive".
^ibiblio FAQ, "Why did you change names from SunSite to MetaLab? Why did you change the name from MetaLab to ibiblio?." Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.