50 Incredible & Free University Libraries Online

Online education has advanced to the point that a person possibly could obtain a degree through lessons and research offered entirely through the Internet. This list of 50 incredible and free university libraries offers only a sampling of special collections (like the one at the University of Chicago), full texts, and journals offered by major universities throughout the world. This list does not include major text repositories such as the Project Gutenberg nor Google Scholar.

This collection was gathered from a wide variety of universities. Be sure to check for other collections available from these institutions.

Digital Collections

1. Appalachian State University: Free access to rare and historic material, including the Abrams Folksong Collection.
2. Brigham Young University: This digital collection is small, but there are links to partnerships with other digital collections.
3. Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship: Brown chooses their “Signature” collections for their comprehensiveness and uniqueness, as well as their significant public value.
4. Columbia University Libraries: This digital collection includes various items and information about their e-book digitization program.
5. Cornell University Library: Browse through this grouping of selected digital collections of historical significance.
6. Duke University Libraries: Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke’s unique library collections.
7. Harvard University Library: Browse through a selection of Web-accessible collections from Eastern Asian botanical images to over 1,000 digitized maps and atlases.
8. Jacksonville State University Houston Cole Library: This digital collection contains a number of items that might delight a family or social historian who focuses on this region.
9. Michigan State University: The Digital and Multimedia Center makes special items from the library available online. It is believed that all of the works in this digital collection are in the public domain and not restricted by copyright.
10. Ohio State University Libraries: The materials on this Website have been made available for use in research, teaching and private study.
11. Princeton University Library: This web site chronicles Princeton’s digitalization efforts and provides a way to search the library’s Digital Collections.
12. Rutgers University Libraries: This collection contains library projects, open access journals and links to two other digital centers.
13. Southern Methodist University: SMU’s Central University Libraries (CUL) includes the online digital collections from the six Central University Libraries.
14. Syracuse University Library: Gain access to a number of collections, including WWII songs from the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive.
15. Tufts University:This library carries collections to support teaching, research, and administrative needs.
16. University of Cambridge: This library offers several important image collections online, including the Gutenberg Bible.
17. University of North Carolina: These collections place an emphasis on North Carolina and the American South.
18. University of Washington: This site features materials such as photographs, maps, newspapers, posters, reports and other media from the University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington Faculty and Departments, and organizations that have participated in partner projects with the UW Libraries.
19. University of Wisconsin: Gain free access to digital resources that support the teaching and research needs of the UW community.
20. Yale University Library: The cross-collection search at this site retrieves results from over 500,000 images.

Library Access

21. Digital South Asia Library: The University of Chicago presents materials for reference and research on South Asia to scholars, public officials, business leaders, and other users.
22. Georgetown University Library: This university offers articles, databases and journals, rare books and archives.
23. HighWire: Stanford University offers journals published online with the assistance of HighWare Press.
24. Indiana University Digital Library Program: The Indiana University Digital Library Program (DLP) is dedicated to the production, maintenance, delivery, and preservation of a wide range of high-quality networked information resources for scholars and students at Indiana University and elsewhere.
25. Internet Archive: Search for university collections at this archive, including Purdue, Cornell, Tufts and Harvard.
26. Miami Christian University: Gain access to many of the largest online repositories of theological books, journals and research tools.
27. Scholars Lab: Formerly the EText Center, this University of Virginia Library resource is not fully operational yet. Some collections have migrated to other sources, many listed here. Also, many of the resources once available on Etext are now available via VIRGO, the primary access point for all U.Va. Library digital texts and images.
28. St. Stephen’s University: Online resources include free electronic texts, articles, history sourcebooks and reference resources.
29. University of Hawai’i at Manoa Library: Gain access to full texts of books, journals and collections through this library.
30. University of Texas at Austin: Some items are restricted to UT Austin users.

International Libraries

31. British History Online: Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust to support academic and personal users around the world.
32. Carrie: Lynn H. Nelson, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Kansas, created this full-text electronic library housed at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
33. Nagoya University Library: This collection is small, but significant, offering items such as the Takagi Family Documents and the Ito Keisuke Collection (father of modern Japanese botany).
34. National Library of Ireland: View over 33,000 images from the Lawrence (Royal & Cabinet), Poole Whole Plate and Independent Newspapers (1912 -1936), Clarke, Eason, Keogh, Stereo Pairs and Tempest glass plate collections.
35. The British Columbia Digital Library: This link leads to collections of electronic texts preserved through libraries, archives, museums and corporate or private initiatives.
36. The Oxford Text Archive: View full texts of materials in this electronic literary and linguistic resource for use in higher education, research, teaching and learning.
37. The Swiss National Library: View items such as newspapers, posters, artwork and journals through this Internet-accessible library collection.
38. TITUS: This server is a joint project centered on Indo-European Studies (including Middle Iranian, Tocharian etc.) in electronic form.
39. University of Oxford e-Resources: This online university library contains a number of resources available to the general public.
40. University of Zurich: This university uses the Open Access respository ZORA for articles and journals.

Special Collections

41. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library: The University of Georgia offers this collection, with links to other resources.
42. Historical Maps Online: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers maps charting the last 400 years of historical development in Illinois and the Northwest Territory.
43. Lehigh University Special Collections: These collections include art, environmental education and other exhibits.
44. News and Newspapers Online: This is a free service of the University Libraries of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
45. Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives: View photographs, prints, rare books and genealogical resources.
46. Tulane University Special Collections: This collection includes the Hogan Jazz Archive and Southeastern architecture.
47. University of Arizona Library Special Collections: This collection of rare books and unique archival materials make possible in-depth research on selected topics possible.
48. University of Michigan Human Rights Library: Use free materials that documents human rights globally in several languages.
49. University of Notre Dame Rare Books & Special Collections: One of the few university collections about the Inquisition, among other topics.
50. Vanderbilt University Special Collections and Archives: View rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia.