The National Emergency Library was a temporary collection of books that supported emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation while universities, schools, training centers, and libraries were closed due to COVID-19. The National Emergency Library launched on March 24, 2020, and closed on June 16, 2020.

While the National Emergency Library closed on June 16, the books in the National Emergency Library are available to one borrower at a time using controlled digital lending. Browse our library.

If you’d like to learn more about the National Emergency Library, please read the following:

• Impacts of the temporary National Emergency Library and controlled digital lending (June 11, 2020)
  • More Impacts of the National Emergency Library (June 22, 2020)
  • Even More Impacts of the National Emergency Library (August 10, 2020)
• Announcing a National Emergency Library to Provide Digitized Books to Students and the Public (March 24, 2020)
• The National Emergency Library – Who Needs It? Who Reads It? Lessons from the First Two Weeks (April 7, 2020)
• Teachers & the National Emergency Library: Stories from the Frontlines of Online Schooling (April 13, 2020)
• Forging a Cooperative Path Forward: University Presses & the National Emergency Library (April 27, 2020)
• Observations From An Author & Librarian (May 4, 2020)
• What it Means to be a Library During COVID-19 (May 11, 2020)
• When An Island Shuts Down: Aruba & the National Emergency Library (May 18, 2020)
• Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early, returning to traditional controlled digital lending (June 10, 2020)
• Frequently Asked Questions about the National Emergency Library