Check Out Books from Ebook Libraries

https://openlibrary.org/

Did you know that you can check out books online just like you can check out books from a traditional brick and mortar library? The OpenLibrary.org is an example of a completely free, online library. Here is a description of the OpenLibrary from its website.

At its heart, Open Library is a catalog. The project began in November 2007 and has been inhaling catalog records from some of the biggest libraries in the world ever since. We have well over 20 million edition records online, provide access to 1.7 million scanned versions of books, and link to external sources like WorldCat and Amazon when we can. The secondary goal is to get you as close to the actual document you're looking for as we can, whether that is a scanned version courtesy of the Internet Archive, or a link to Powell's where you can purchase your own copy.

The first step is to sign into the website by creating a free account. You can then download books in a variety of formats and read them on any device that can connect to the internet. Here is an example. I can browse the huge catalog and decide on a book I would like to read. Yes, most of these books are older books now in the public domain, but there are a number of surprises also. How many of these books relate to genealogy? That depends on your definition of genealogy. Not all the books in the catalog have available ebooks for downloading and reading.

Here is a book I thought interesting:

Over on the right-hand side of the page, there is a link to borrow the ebook. If I click on the link, the book downloads to my computer and I can begin to read.

When I click on the cover, I get an animated page turning and I can literally read the book just as if it were physically in front of me.

At the bottom of the screen, I have links to enlarge the text or change the format of the way the book is presented. I choose to read the book a single page at a time and I can scroll the pages with my cursor by clicking and dragging on the page.

Here is the first page of the text. Do you think I can learn how to write?

Now, you have 1.7 million additional options to read. Hmm. No enough? Well, here is another free library where you can download and check out books: the SimplyE app. You can find this free app in either the Apple App Store or on the Google Play store. This app gives you access to thousands of additional books from libraries around the United States. Are there more sources? Absolutely. There are dozens of free online libraries. Some of these are connected to your own public library. If you are interested, you might want to start searching online for free, online libraries of ebooks.