How to Find Free Ebooks While Libraries are Closed

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

How to find free ebooks while libraries are closed:

Shelter in place orders throughout the country haven't just brought the economy to a grinding halt, but frozen civic infrastructure as well. Sure, water still flows from our taps, police and firefighters are still on the job, but your local library likely isn't considered an essential service. But that doesn't mean you can't ride out this plague with a stack of good books by your side, they just might be of the digital variety.

Your first order of business should be to check in on your neighborhood library branch. Systems throughout the US have begun offering "second line" services -- from 24-hour free wifi and homeless services to emergency childcare and foodbank distributions -- to help their communities through these difficult times.

What's more, even if your local doesn't have physical books for borrowing, many now offer a variety of online services to augment their closed locations. A recent study by the Public Library Association found that while 98 percent of the 2,500-system respondents did have to close their buildings to some extent, among them 76 percent continued, expanded, or added online renewals for already-borrowed books while 74 percent built or expanded their e-book and streaming media collections.

The San Francisco Public Library, for example offers a smorgasbord of online classes and workshops, e-books and e-magazines, newspapers, streaming music, and virtual storytimes for the smol ones. LA County shut down its central branch and all 72 satellites in response to COVID-19 but is similarly offering music, movies, books, magazines, remote learning resources and workshops through its web portal. Chicago's public library system has also shuttered its branches but is offering to pipe ebooks directly to your Kindle for anywhere from 1 - 3 weeks. You don't even need to worry about "returning" them, they'll automatically remove themselves from the device once the borrowing window has closed. The public libraries of both Boston and New York have followed suit.

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