Overview
City of Sydney's public libraries are some of the many venues temporarily closed in a bid to contain COVID-19. That doesn't mean that you can't spend your time at home reading as many books as possible, however, with Sydneysiders able access the libraries' hefty collection of digital items — not only including books, but music, magazines and movies as well.
As part of that collection, more than 11,000 ebooks are on offer. You'll find contemporary fiction titles such as Murakami's Norwegian Wood and True Grit by Charles Portis; a bunch of Australian ones, including Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap, Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, Benjamin Law's memoir The Family Law and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion's; and over 200 classics such as The Great Gatsby, Heart of Darkness, On the Road and To Kill a Mockingbird — all of which are available to read online or download for a limited period for free. The list goes on, of course, and to start digitally skimming through their pages, all you need to do is sign up for a free digital library membership on the City of Sydney Library website, or use your existing library membership and head here.
Not enough? City of Sydney Library has recently added the State Library of NSW's online resource Indyreads, too, which will give you access to more than 9000 ebooks from major and independent publishers, self-published authors and local writers. Once you've got your library membership sorted, you can log into Indyreads here.
For those who prefer to have a good book read to them, rather than flick through it themselves, library members can also access more than 2300 audiobooks, including The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Ian McEwan's The Children Act and Saroo Brierley's Lion, which you can either listen to online or download to your own device.
Elsewhere on the library's website, you'll find music, magazines, ecomics and newspapers, as well more than hundreds of free movies via streaming service Beamafilm. And, if you're still looking for something to do, you can also learn a language, with your library card getting you free access to Mango Languages.
Sign up to become a City of Sydney Library member online and explore its digital collection.