Internet Archive creates a National Emergency Library with over 1.4 million books you can borrow immediately

If you’re stuck at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet Archive has some good news for you. It has taken the step of suspending waitlists for books in its lending library, so you can gain immediate access to them.

There are over 1.4 million titles available to read, with more being added regularly.

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The Internet Archive explains:

To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020, the Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners. This suspension will run through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later.

The National Emergency Library includes all the books from Phillips Academy Andover and Marygrove College, and much of Trent University’s collections, as well as over a million other titles donated from other libraries to readers worldwide.

"The library system, because of our national emergency, is coming to aid those that are forced to learn at home," said Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. "This was our dream for the original Internet coming to life: the Library at everyone’s fingertips."

Despite the assembled collection being linked to the US National Emergency, students around the world can also access all of the books on offer.

You can browse and borrow books from the National Emergency Library here.

Photo Credit: DavidPinoPhotography/Shutterstock