7 Free Online Libraries

Published on 21 February 2023 at 10:48

Can't get to your local library? Are the books you want to read banned in your community?

Books are vital for sharing stories, cultures, experiences, and ideas, but they can get expensive. Local libraries have historically been the easiest way to access books for free. However, not everyone can get to their local library, and many communities are banning books with LGBTQ2IA+ content and content about black and brown communities.
 
In this post, I've compiled a list of libraries that offer books online for free. It's hard to find some of the more recently banned books, since many online libraries focus on classical Western literature and books in the public domain. One of the best resources I've found for modern books is Google Books, however, you can still find some (historically) banned books using the libraries below.

Image Description: Two long rows of bookshelves are filled with books with their bindings facing out. 

Credit: Webador

Free Online Libraries

  1. The Online Books Page: This site hosts more than 3 million books for free. Many are classics or in the public domain, but you'll find some (historically or currently) banned or challenged books in their database, such as Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner). The Online Books Page is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.
  2. Open Library: Housed by the Internet Archive, Open Library shares books through their eBook Lending Library. You must set up an Open Library account in order to borrow books. All their books are also available in audiobook format.
  3. Page by Page Books: This site offers hundreds of classic books you can read without checking them out of a library. They also have a collection of inaugural addresses by U.S. presidents. Page by Page Books has The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Frederick Douglass), which has been banned on many occasions as well as other books that directly discuss slavery and its impact on American history and culture.
  4. Pike's Peak Library District: This library system offers an ebook sifter which helps you find free links to the book you're looking for. Simply type the author's name or the title of the book and the index will let you know if another website is hosting that text.
  5. Project Gutenberg: You can choose from more than 60,000 free ebooks, viewable through epub or Kindle ebooks. This project is maintained by thousands of volunteers and focuses on works that have outlived their U.S. copyright. No fee or registration is required. You will find historically banned books like The Souls of Black Folk (W.E.B. Du Bois). While I haven't found evidence of this book being banned, you can also read Carmilla (Sheridan Le Fanu), a hard-to-find sapphic vampire novel written in 1872.
  6. Public Literature: This site is unusual because it showcases samples provided by authors from around the world as well as offering a collection of classic books for free.
  7. World Digital Library: The U.S. Library of Congress created the World Digital Library with the support of UNESCO and is a collection of books, maps, manuscripts considered to contain significance to cultural heritage. Materials can be found in more that 100 languages. You're unlikely to find novels in this collection, but if you have any interest in world history, it may be worth a gander.
 
Got a favorite book that others can access for free? Drop the title and a link in the comments below. As always, please be respectful in the comments. Thank you!

 

Sources:

“Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine.” Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://archive.org/.

“The Online Books Page.” The Online Books Page. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.

OpenLibrary.org. “Welcome to Open Library: Open Library.” The Internet Archive's Open Library: One page for every book. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://openlibrary.org/.

“Page by Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free.” Page by Page Books. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://www.pagebypagebooks.com/.

“Project Gutenberg.” Project Gutenberg. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://www.gutenberg.org/.

Publicliterature.org. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://publicliterature.org/.

“World Digital Library (WDL).” The Library of Congress. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0018836/.

“| Pikes Peak Library District.” | Pikes Peak Library District. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://ppld.org/.

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