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.

After June 16, 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