This page brings together free online books, topic searches, textbooks, and Open Access resources related to librarianship, library science, information science, research and digital libraries. The materials range from older public domain works to modern scholarly studies.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Browsing the topics and selecting those of interest is usually easier and more effective than searching Internet Archive directly.
Sections below Topics provide links to related textbooks and modern Open Access books. See those sections for more information.
Topics – Librarianship and Libraries PDF – Library Science Books Free
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to library and information science. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable books, periodicals, and other documents. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by year, language, or related subjects.
- Academic libraries
- Association libraries
- Audio-visual library service
- Book catalogs
- Book selection
- Bookmobiles
- Branch libraries
- Cataloging Books
- Children’s libraries
- Classification Library of Congress
- Collection development (Libraries)
- Corporate libraries
- Dewey Decimal Classification
- Digital libraries
- Fiction in libraries
- Government aid to libraries
- Government libraries
- High school libraries
- Illegal libraries
- Indian tribal libraries
- Interlibrary loans
- International libraries
- Joint-use libraries
- Law libraries
- Librarians In-service training
- Librarianship
- Libraries Acquisitions
- Libraries Administration
- Libraries and community
- Libraries and schools
- Libraries and students
- Libraries and teachers
- Libraries and teenagers
- Libraries and the Internet
- Libraries and the poor
- Libraries and women
- Libraries Automation
- Libraries Collection development
- Libraries Government policy
- Libraries Online Resources
- Libraries Public relations
- Libraries Special collections
- Library administration
- Library architecture
- Library Archives
- Library buildings
- Library catalogs
- Library circulation and loans
- Library consultants
- Library cooperation
- Library copyright policies
- Library directors
- Library education
- Library employees
- Library etiquette
- Library finance
- Library information desks
- Library information networks
- Library institutes and workshops
- Library legislation
- Library materials
- Library materials budgets
- Library of Congress
- Library orientation
- Library outreach programs
- Library personnel management
- Library planning
- Library records
- Library research
- Library resources
- Library resources
- Library resources Conservation and restoration
- Library schools
- Library science
- Library service agencies
- Library services
- Library statistics
- Library storage centers
- Library surveys
- Library technicians
- Library trustees
- Library use studies
- Library users
- Library Web sites
- Literature in libraries
- Little free libraries
- Makerspaces in libraries
- Map collections
- Medical libraries
- Music libraries
- National libraries
- OCLC
- Online library catalogs
- Open educational resources in libraries
- Private libraries
- Proprietary libraries
- Public libraries
- Reference services (Libraries)
- Research libraries
- School libraries
- Science and technology libraries
- Small libraries
- Special libraries
- Subject catalogs
- Subscription libraries
- Traveling libraries
- Union catalogs
- Volunteer libraries
- Young adults’ libraries
Library Science PDF Textbooks Free Download
The selected free online books below provide an alternative to searching Internet Archive through the Topics section above. These individual titles were chosen as especially useful or representative works related to subjects on this page.
Vintage books were nearly always published before 1930. They can be read online or downloaded.
Open Access Librarianship Textbooks PDF
Open Access textbooks are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used, and were published or updated in recent years. You may also find here other learning resources, such as course lesson plans.
Library and Information Studies
Annie Knight
Achieving the Dream
This textbook is an introduction to a variety of information literacy skills as they relate to library and information science.
Information Literacy: Research and Collaboration across Disciplines
Barbara J. D’Angelo, Barry Maid, Sandra Jamieson
WAC Clearinghouse 2019
This collection brings together scholarship and pedagogy from multiple perspectives and disciplines, offering nuanced and complex perspectives on Information Literacy in the second decade of the 21st century.
Legal Issues in Libraries and Archives
Carla Myers, Cindy Kristof, et al
Minnesota Libraries 2021
An open access textbook designed specifically for library and information science courses and is authored and edited by copyright experts in libraries.
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Andrew T. Kenyon, Emily Hudson, Petr B. Hirtle
Cornell Univ. 2021
A full length monograph aimed at helping libraries, archives, and museums navigate copyright law involving digitization. In the course of the book, though, the authors helpfully unpack many areas of copyright law including Section 108 of the Copyright Act, Fair Use, Licensing, and Risk Management.
Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society—Cases and Materials
James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins
CALI 2021
This book is an introduction to intellectual property law, the set of private legal rights that allows individuals and corporations to control intangible creations and marks—from logos to novels to drug formulae—and the exceptions and limitations that define those rights.
Library 160: Introduction to College-Level Research – Library Science Textbook PDF
Iowa State Univ. Library Instruction Services
Iowa State Univ. 2021
You will learn how scholarly information is produced, organized, and accessed; how to construct and use effective search strategies in a variety of web tools and scholarly databases; how to choose finding tools appropriate to the type of information you need; critical thinking skills in the evaluation of resources; and best practices in the ethical use of information.
The Information Literacy User’s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook
Allison Hosier, Daryl Bullis, et al
Milne 2015
Textbook that introduces students to critical concepts of information literacy as defined for the information-infused and technology-rich environment in which they find themselves. This book helps students examine their roles as information creators and sharers and enables them to more effectively deploy related skills.
Open Access Library and Information Science Books and Textbooks PDF Free Download
The Open Access books and other materials below are modern works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other organizations. Many reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can also be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
Related Pages on Century Past
See our Century Past directories for hundreds of webpages of Books; Magazines; Articles, maps, & photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find the same directories on the top Menu. Here are a few suggested pages: