Open Library Reader

Loomis House, LLC

About this app

Open Library is an online library with millions of books to browse or check out. You can track the books that you're reading, want to read, etc. and read many of them right there.

This app is one reader's effort to create the ideal portable experience for taking advantage of Open Library's amazing collection.

You'll get the best experience out of this app on an iPad, but you can use it on a smaller screen (if you don't mind squinting).

The moment you open the app and log in, any books you've already saved on the Open Library site are laid out on your screen. You can sort them by title, author, publication date, and date saved, see which books are available to read, and open them with a single tap.

Once you've opened a book in the familiar reading interface, a tap at the top of the screen will trigger the full screen mode, removing every distraction and expanding the book pages to the limits of your screen for the perfect reading experience.

Other features include:
- Built-in search: find and add books to your shelves from inside the app.
- Shelf management: move books between shelves, remove books, change the edition of a book.
- Related title search: choose a book on your shelf and quickly find more books like it.
- Checkout tracking: see at a glance how long you have left on limited-access books you've checked out.
- Customization: choose which shelves you want to see and manage the size of the books and their titles.

This app is essentially an alternative interface to the Open Library site — all of your data is stored there, and the books you read are hosted online, not in the app. As a result, an active internet connection is required when you are using this app.


Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. The developer of this app has no legal or contractual relationship with Open Library or the Internet Archive, and bears no responsibility for the content found there.

Ratings and reviews

very good. it either provides you with what you want to read or tells you where you can get it (like from a local library or an Amazon link). my only complaint is that I want to read more but don't know what to read, I'm sort of a general purpose nerd and can get into anything but that simply leaves way too much for me to actually do. if there was some feature that gave you a random book then this would honestly be one of the best apps of all time for me.

I loved this app. I used it all the time and even used it on Google. Lately it hasn't been working and it keeps saying no connection when I know there is. I really miss this app I was able to get all the good books when there's no library near me. Please if you can fix this mess I would redownload.

This is disastrous!! Open library worked beautifully on all my devices until this app was forced onto us by Google. I can access my account, find my book lists, I just can't read the books, the app just hangs. I am NOT impressed. I can't even read using other browsers. Nice stuff up Google

What’s new

• Internal updates to meet changes to the OpenLibrary API.
• Fixed some small bugs here and there. Probably introduced a few more.