Free Online Libraries You Should Know About

“A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life” as said by Henry Ward Beecher, an American Congregationalist. If a library facility is free and accessible everywhere then it is surely a luxury. Since childhood, we have been taught about the benefits of reading. Francis Bacon, an English philosopher terms ‘reading’ as an ornament of a man while Nabokov, a Russian novelist calls it a pleasure to have a book to read before going to bed. For a bibliophile, there is perhaps nothing more life-changing than reading a good book. There are more than 158,464,880 books in the world. Isn’t that a huge number? In this blog, we are going to discuss various free online libraries available for readers across the world.

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From Shelves to Folders

When we think of a library, an image of dusty books on the wooden shelves of a large room with an old librarian in a tweed coat immediately comes to our mind. Hold on! We are in the age of the Internet, where technology is ahead of us. There are thousands of books that we can carry in our mobile phones. Reading and accessing information has never been this easy. Whether at home or anywhere in the world, you can enjoy the luxury of reading as soon as you have access to the Internet.

Let’s have a look at the list of free online libraries that together comprise millions of books available for everyone across the world.

List of Free Online Libraries

1. National Digital Library of India 
2. Open Library
3. Project Gutenberg
4. The Online Books Page
5. Read Print
6. Questia
7. ScienceOpen
8. California Digital Library
9. Internet Archive
10. World Digital Library
11. Authorama
12. The Literature Network
13. LUMS Library
14. Public Literature
15. Universal Digital Library
16. Wikisource
17. Scribd
18. Planet Book
19. HathiTrust Digital Library 
20. Smithsonian Library
21. Librivox
22. Bartleby
23. Bibliomania
24. International Children’s Digital Library
25. ManyBooks.net
26. Europeana
27. New York Public Library
28. Google Books
29. Amazon Books
30. Biodiversity Heritage Library
31. JSTOR
32. KOBO.com
33. Electronic Literature Foundation
34. Oregon Digital Library Consortium 
35. Directory of Open Access Journals
36. Social Science Research Network
37. OpenDOAR
38. JURN
39. Elsevier
40. Wiley Online Library
41. PDF Books World
42. Libby
43. Scopus
44. PubMed
45. Barnes & Noble Free Nook Books 
46. OverDrive
47. iBiblio
48. Classic Reader
49. MyPustak.com
50. ERIC

National Digital Library of India 

National Digital Library of India is an online repository of educational resources, books, journals, data sets, audiobooks, lectures, video lectures, presentations, notes, question papers, and solutions in subject areas like Law, Medicine, Humanities, Sciences, Engineering, Literature and Management. The content is available in all Indian languages and the material is compiled from Indian Education and Research institutions.

Open Library

Created in 2008, Open Library holds more than 20 million records. It is a project funded by the California State Library and the Kahle-Austin Foundation. Giving open and free access to the books available on the website, Open Library is the destination for book lovers who are looking for free online libraries.

Project Gutenberg

Its web portal has more than 60,000 free ebooks to read making it one of the most visited sites for free online books. Project Gutenberg has the greatest literature available online. As the website runs on donations, content is freely available to the public. A reader can download books on mobile phones, laptops and Kindle e-readers.

The Online Books Page

Online Books Page is an online library managed by the University of Pennsylvania and is a great destination for book lovers wanting to read for free. There are more than 30,000 titles available to read for free on smart devices.

Read Print

Another from the list of free online libraries is Read Print, which is known to be one of Time Magazine’s 50 best websites. It is an online portal offering thousands of books for free and also gives recommendations for new books to read. Moreover, there are a lot of book clubs and discussion forums for the reader to join.

Questia

Questia gives the reader access to around 5,000 books available for the public domain. Besides books, it also has journals and magazines on its website. However, to use the premium research tools on the website membership is required.

California Digital Library

For those who love to enjoy the feel of paper while reading, this is exactly the place for them. California Digital Library uses high-resolution scanned pages of hardcovers and uses an interface to allow users to flip the pages which gives the reader the feel of reading a hardcover.

Internet Archive

Students looking for a library that has it all – books, software, music, movies, websites and more for free, Internet Archive is the place. Housing millions of books and content for free makes it an ideal choice for knowledge seekers. Its online portal claims to have 330 billion web pages and 20 million books by now.

World Digital Library

Some of us who are fond of historic and intercultural texts can check out World Digital Library, a project by the U.S. Library of Congress. It has texts from over 193 countries between 800 BCE and 2000.

Authorama

Offering a vast number of books from famous authors around the globe, Authorama is amongst the top free online libraries for those who love scouring fictional novels! It has a plethora of books in the public domain and these are also in XHTML format thus preserving their texts and illustrations.

The Literature Network

Another renowned name amongst our best picks for free online libraries, the Literature Network has thousands of poems, short stories, novellas and novels on offer! It also features reviews from readers around the world and organises quizzes to make it an engaging reading experience for everyone!

Free Online Libraries for Research

Here is a list of libraries that students, PhD scholars and academicians can use for college research, dissertation writing or publishing journals for peer review.

• National Digital Library of India 
• Open Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Public Domain Books
• HathiTrust Digital Library 
• CORE
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• ScienceOpen
• JSTOR
• Directory of Open Access Journals
• Social Science Research Network
• OpenDOAR
• Elsevier
• Wiley Online Library
• PDF Books World
• The Online Books Page
• Scopus
• PubMed
• ERIC

Free Online Libraries for College Students & Children

Here is a list of free online libraries that college students, children and adults who love to read that use for school, college or enjoyment!

• Book Depository
• Smithsonian Library
• Librivox
• Bartleby
• Bibliomania
• International Children’s Digital Library
• Google Books
• Amazon Books
• Project Gutenberg
• KOBO.com
• Electronic Literature Foundation
• Oregon Digital Library Consortium 
• Barnes & Noble Free Nook Books 
• OverDrive
• Classic Reader
• MyPustak.com
• Libby

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FAQs

Acquiring information is a part of our daily routine. Reading has become more prominent with tons of free information available online. Whether you’re passionate about reading or preparing for higher studies, free online libraries are the ultimate reading destinations for you. For more information on such informative topics for your school, visit our school education page and follow Leverage Edu.