State Libraries Stand in the Social Distancing Gap

As families across the country are challenged by social distancing and voluntary isolation in the face of COVID-19, libraries are helping to fill the entertainment, education, information, and inquiry gaps. While you may already think of your local library as a resource for digital and online resources, we want to encourage you to also check out the amazing resources from your state library too. 

Across the country, our state libraries are the gateway to online and digital collections that give every state residents free e-books, magazines, journals, newspapers, streaming audio and video, audiobooks, primary source materials, test preparation, homework help, genealogy records, state and local history, career search and skills building, local authors, and (believe it or not) more! In every state, the state libraries are tremendous resources for reading, literacy services, learning for all ages, and even business development and skills building. And with all the medical concerns in the news, state libraries provide free access to high-quality authoritative databases of health information and connections to government resources. 

Many of America’s state libraries have databases, ebook collections, health information, and educational support that are funded in part by with grants from the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). So if you see a notice on a state library page like “made possible by state and federal funds” you should know that this powerful partnership between the state library and the IMLS benefits each and every resident in your state. It is one more way that a small amount of smart money for libraries makes a difference in our communities. 

It’s important to note that the offerings at each state library differ from each other. These resources are generally only available for residents state-by-state (which is appropriate considering that it t is taxpayer-funded). In some states, you just need to be online in the state (so if the website asks you to allow a location please do to access it). In others, you’ll need a free library card to log on. But there is always an email address for tech support if you run into problems. 

We’ve done our best to point you in the right direction to each state library’s free digital and online resources. Don’t be shy about looking around more on the state library site, too. 

 

Alabama Virtual Library from the Alabama State Library

https://www.avl.lib.al.us/

 

Alaska State Library - State Electronic Library Doorway

https://lam.alaska.gov/sled

 

Arizona State Library - Digital Arizona Library

https://azlibrary.gov/dazl

 

Arkansas State Library

https://library.arkansas.gov/landing-page/details/library-collections and https://library.arkansas.gov/landing-page/details/databases-by-title

 

California State Library - Online Collections

https://www.library.ca.gov/collections/online-collections/

 

Colorado Virtual Library - Colorado State Library

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/

 

Connecticut State Library - researchIT CT 

https://researchitct.org/

 

DC Public Library - Go Digital

https://www.dclibrary.org/godigital/all

 

Delaware Libraries - EMedia and Delaware Catalog

https://lib.de.us/emedia/ 

 

Florida Electronic Library from the Florida Division of Library and Information Services

https://www.flelibrary.com/

 

Georgia Public Library Service (State Library) - GALILEO

https://www.galileo.usg.edu/welcome/

 

Hawaii State Public Library System - Browse the Collection

https://www.librarieshawaii.org/

 

Idaho Commission for Libraries - Libraries Linking Idaho

https://lili.org/

 

Illinois State Library - Research Database

https://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/databases/home.html

 

Indiana State Library - Digital Collections

https://digitalcollections.library.in.gov/ and https://www.in.gov/library/2353.htm

 

Iowa - State Library of Iowa - Digital and Online Resources

https://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/services 

 

Kanas State Library - E-books and Databases

https://kslib.info/128/Digital-Book-eLending and https://kslib.info/221/Online-Databases

 

Kentucky Virtual Library 

https://kyvl.org/

 

Louisianna State Library - Databases for all Lousianna Residents

https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/ and https://lalibcon.state.lib.la.us/free.php

 

Maine State Library - Digital Maine Library

https://library.digitalmaine.org/

 

Maryland State Library Resource Center 

https://www.slrc.info/

 

Massachusetts - State Library of Massachusetts Collections

https://www.mass.gov/learn-about-the-state-librarys-collections

 

Michigan E-Library - Library of Michigan

https://www.mel.org/welcome

 

Minnesota State Library Services - eLibraryMN

https://elibrarymn.org/ 

 

Mississippi Library Commission - MAGNOLIA

https://magnolia.msstate.edu/

 

Missouri State Library - Digital Refence

https://mostate.libguides.com/reference

 

Montana State Library - Digital Library

http://digitallibrary.msl.mt.gov/

 

Nebraska Access - Nebraska Library Commission

https://nebraskaccess.ne.gov/resources.asp 

 

Nevada State Library - Silver Star Library

https://silverstarcoop.overdrive.com/ 

 

New Hampshire State Library - Resources for Residents at Local Libraries

https://www.nh.gov/nhsl/nhewlink/public/

 

New Jersey State Library - Jersey Clicks

https://www.njstatelib.org/services_for_libraries/statewide_services/jerseyclicks/

 

New Mexico State Library - El Portal

http://www.elportalnm.org/ 

 

New York State Library - NOVELny

https://novelnewyork.org/ 

 

North Carolina State Library

https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/ghl/resources

 

North Dakota State Library 

http://www.library.nd.gov/onlineresources.html 

 

Ohio Digital Resources - State Library of Ohio

https://library.ohio.gov/

 

Oklahoma Department of Libraries - Digital Prarie 

https://digitalprairieok.net/ and https://libraries.ok.gov/research-learning/kids-resources-pk-6th/

 

Oregon State Library - Digital Collections

https://digital.osl.state.or.us/ and 

 

Pennsylvania Online Library (POWER) - Office of Commonwealth Libraries

http://powerlibrary.org/

 

Rhode Island - Office of Library and Information Services -Ask RI

https://www.askri.org/

 

South Carolina State Library Digital Collections  - All Databases

http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/collections and https://guides.statelibrary.sc.gov/az.php

 

South Dakota State Library - Databases and E-Resources

https://library.sd.gov/LIB/ERD/complete.aspx

 

Tennessee Electronic Library from the Tennesee State Library and Archives
https://tntel.info/

 

Texas State Library and Archives - Tex Share

https://texshare.net/gs.php 

 

Utah State Library - Utah’s Online Public Library

https://library.utah.gov/utahs-online-public-library/

 

Vermont State Library - Vermont Online Library

https://vtonlinelib.org/ 

 

Virginia Collections - Library of Virginia 

https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/using_collections.asp 

 

Washington State Library 

https://www.sos.wa.gov/library/collections.aspx

 

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - BadgerLink

https://badgerlink.dpi.wi.gov/

 

West Virginia Library Commission

https://librarycommission.wv.gov/Patrons/Collections/Pages/default.aspx

 

Wyoming State Library - GoWYLD

http://gowyld.net/ and https://library.wyo.gov/using-the-library/residents/ 

 

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Several other national organizations have free access to reading, education, learning, and entertainment resources. A few highlights are: 

 

Library of Congress maintains a helpful guide to history resources

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/statememory/

 

Harvard Law Libraries maintains a comprehensive guide to free online legal resources.

https://guides.library.harvard.edu/free

 

Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks from the public domain.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

 

The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

https://archive.org/index.php

If you find other gems please drop us a line. We’re all in this together until we can flatten that COVID-19 curve.