# Open Library

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Open Library and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free online library catalog with strong English coverage, and borrowing from its digital collection. Caveat: scans are often poor and non-English coverage has gaps.

## What people warn about

- Poor scans and missing pages (1 comments): "The quality of the scans are usually poor and occasionally pages are missing and many have been removed. It's been great for us." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48503160))
- Gaps outside English coverage (1 comments): "Open Library has great English coverage but gaps elsewhere." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47310736))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Anna's Archive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/anna-s-archive.md): 134 recommend
- [Project Gutenberg](https://hackerapproved.com/p/project-gutenberg.md): 76 recommend
- [Standard Ebooks](https://hackerapproved.com/p/standard-ebooks.md): 34 recommend
- [Library Genesis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/library-genesis.md): 15 recommend
- [LibGen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libgen.md): 12 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://openlibrary.org/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Open Library", https://hackerapproved.com/p/open-library/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).