Shadow libraries

Sci-Hub is a shadow library that provides free access to millions of research papers, regardless of copyright, by bypassing publishers' paywalls in various ways. Unlike Library Genesis, it does not provide access to books. Sci-Hub was founded in Kazakhstan by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011, in response to the rising costs of research papers behind paywalls. The site is extensively used worldwide. In September 2019, the site's operator(s) said that it served approximately 400,000 requests per day. In addition to its intensive use, Sci-Hub stands out among other shadow libraries because of its easy

Anna's Archive is an open source search engine for shadow libraries that was launched by the pseudonymous Anna shortly after law enforcement efforts to shut down Z-Library in 2022. The site aggregates records from Z-Library, Sci-Hub, and Library Genesis (LibGen), among other sources. It calls itself "the largest truly open library in human history", and has said it aims to "catalog all the books in existence" and "track humanity's progress toward making all these books easily available in digital form". It claims not to be liable for downloads of copyrighted works since it does not directly host any files, instead linking to third-party downloads. It has nonetheless been targeted for engaging in large-scale copyright infringement, facing government blocks and legal action from rightsholders and publishing trade associations.

search engine for scientific articles and books

Z-Library (abbreviated as z-lib, formerly BookFinder) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic texts and general-interest books. It began as a mirror of Library Genesis but has expanded dramatically.

database of content that is a copy of content that is otherwise obscured or not accessible because of paywalls or other accessibility restrictions

Library.nu, previously called ebooksclub.org from 2004 to 2007 and Gigapedia from 2007 to 2010, was a popular linking website. It was accused of copyright infringement and shut down by court order on February 15, 2012. According to the takedown notice, it hosted some 400,000 ebooks.

Flibusta () is a shadow library project mainly for Russian language books. Its collection comprised over 630,000 books. Dissatisfied with the commercialization of Librusec, Russia's main shadow library, the website was established by a group of volunteers in October 2009. The founder and administrator of the site was known as "Stiver", who lived in Germany. The website had been the subject of legal action by Russian publishing houses on several occasions. German police investigated Stiver for two years but took no action against him in 2016. In 2016, the site was blocked in Russia according to

Librusec () is a library internet portal, the owner of which, Ilja Larin (), lives in Ecuador. Most of the content is in the Russian language, but the collection also has significant material in Ukrainian, Belarusian, English, German, French, Spanish and other languages. According to the rules of the library, Librusec calls itself a pirate library, opposes copyright laws and claims to operate under the laws of Ecuador. Users are asked to refrain from using it if it is illegal in their countries.

online archive of anarchism-related written works