When I wrote about public libraries and the lockdowns around a year ago, I said that eBooks and other online material can help to compensate for the lack of access to physical library books.
The library restrictions eased during the summer, but there is a possibility that stricter rules will soon be re-instated. If so, I will once again stop visiting the public library. The pile of my own books that I set aside last year to re-read and donate in batches has shrunk to almost nothing, but I have found a new – to me - online resource in the form of the Open Library, a not-for-profit project that operates very like a public library.
Project Gutenberg is a good source of digitised books, but in some ways the Open Library is better.
Where Project Gutenberg has only older books that are in the public domain because their copyrights have expired, the Open Library's lending stock includes newer, in-copyright books; where Project Gutenberg's books are available in various modern formats, the Open Library provides online images of the original print versions: readers get scanned covers and text pages, and illustrations and photographs are often reproduced too.
As can be seen from the labels, ticket pockets and date stamps on some opening pages, many of the books were provided by public libraries; this makes the reading experience even more like the real thing.
Where Project Gutenberg has lists, the Open Library also has 'shelves' that are organised and can be browsed like those in a physical library.
The ever-growing Open Library catalogue aims to list all works by a particular author whether they are in the Library or not; it is possible to select only those that are available for Reading and Borrowing.
