Online Library
Virtual Libraries - These sites offer many resources found in your local library all online! Find ebooks, audiobooks, even movies and online courses!
Cumberland County Library - If you have a public library card, you should just explore the resources available to you!
Digital Public Library of America - DPLA is aimed at giving universal access to digital resources of American libraries and archives.
Europeana - Europeana offers access to millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, and archives.
NC Digital - If you have a public library card, NC Digital offers countless digital resources - e-books, audiobooks, magazines, and videos!
OpenCulture - Open Culture is a popular blog that curates access to educational and cultural media.
E-books - Electronic books (e-books or ebooks) are digital versions of books that you can read on any device connected to the internet. Some can even be downloaded for reading offline.
Authorama - This simple to explore site lists completely free books from a variety of different authors. The site’s purpose is to bring public domain books from sites like Project Gutenberg into a form easily readable in a web browser.
Books Should Be Free - The site offers thousands of free public domain books, like audiobooks or text files. Titles in 30 languages can be found here.
Classic Literature Library - Public domain books organized into collections. The complete works of William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, among others.
DailyLit - The platform’s offer should suit modern-day people who are always in a hurry. You can read an ebook in daily installments, delivered by mail or RSS feed.
Google Books - Google launched its own ebookstore some time ago, but the earlier book scan project, Google Book Search, is still there. Perform any search and you’ll see a list of results. If you see Preview or Full View link under the book’s title, it means you can read its scan in the browser.
Internet Archive - The website is a huge repository of text, audio and video files, including public domain titles. You can browse and read online over 5 million books and items from over 1,500 collections.
Junior Library Guild - JLG Gold Standard eBooks for Elementary, Middle School and High school students, JLG Digital gives you and your readers unlimited access to read books online from any device.
Literature Network - The site calls itself a “searchable online literature for the student, educator, or enthusiast.” Currently, there are over 3,600 full books and over 4,400 short stories & poems from over 250 authors.
Online Books Page - The site, managed by the University of Pennsylvania, offers a clean interface to browse for over 1 million free ebooks from around the web.
Open Library - There are over 1,000,000 free ebook titles available. Most of the titles are public domain, but you can also find here a growing lending library of over 200,000 contemporary ebooks. If the book is available in digital form, a Read button is shown next to its catalog listing.
Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
Audiobooks - Audiobooks are recordings of someone reading a book. These are available online or for download.
Audible Stories - For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
Authors Everywhere! - Read-alouds on YouTube, some with writing prompts.
Brightly Storytime - Video read-alouds of some of the newest and most popular picture books.
HarperKids - YouTube playlist of Read Aloud videos from HarperKids publishers.
Kate Messner - Author Kate Messner has compiled a page of videos of authors reading their own books.
KidLit TV - KidLit is a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Legamus! - The site makes free audio books from texts that entered the public domain in Europe.
LibriVox - Founded in 2005, LibriVox is an extensive library of free public domain audiobooks. Volunteers record chapters of public domain books. Afterwards, LibriVox releases the audio file for free in the public domain, and you may use it the way you like.
Mrs. P - An award-winning FREE storybook destination. Classic children’s stories brought to life by TV star Kathy Kinney (from The Drew Carey show) as Mrs. P.
Oliver Jeffers - During the COVID-19 school closings, author Oliver Jeffers is reading one of his books online everyday. These videos are all posted on his website.
Read Out Loud - Enjoy story time with authors.
Storyline Online - The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
Story Time from Space - Story Time from Space features astronauts reading IN SPACE!
Storytime with Bill - YouTube playlist of Read Aloud videos from Little, Brown Young Readers.
Unite for Literacy - Unite For Literacy has many stories read aloud in multiple languages.