Books, Literature, Reading, Self-Publishing

Use ABCmouse at home or on the go with your library card.

A fun learning program for kids ages 2–8, with over 10,000 games, books, puzzles, and activities that help build reading, math, science, and school skills.

What to know before you start:

• Access link: Select Alameda County Library's access link and enter your library card number and PIN to set up your account.
• Account Setup: Create an account using your email and a strong password. Follow the prompts to finish setup.
• Renewals: Each session lasts 30 days—renew through our access link when needed.
• Kids per Account: One adult account supports up to 3 children.
• No Library Card or Account? You have two options: 
  • Visit Us: Visit any of our library locations to use ABCmouse without logging in or creating an account.
  • Get a Card: Get a free library card. Both eCards and physical cards work for ABCmouse.

Tip: Watch this short tutorial to learn how to setup your account.

Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the nation's leading champion of American poets and poetry, with members in all fifty states. Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry.  The Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in April 1996.

The Atlantic Magazine Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text for the complete archive (including covers and advertisements) of this leading monthly magazine beginning in November 1857 and ending April 2014.

This collection comprises a treasure trove of BBC productions of famous literary works, many that were buried in the BBC archive for the past few decades. A great breadth of works is included from Dickens to Shakespeare, from Chekhov to Arthur Miller, from Jane Austen to Mary Shelley. Talent like Mark Rylance, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Colin Firth, and more make this product a must-have for theatre, drama, performing arts, and literature courses. In addition to actual performances, the product includes titles like Face to Face where actors and directors discuss their craft. From Alexander Street.

Beanstack is a free service designed for families with young readers. Discover our favorite books, matched to your child's interests, and other tools for building literacy.

California Indie-Authors, Indie Author Project Select, and local content.

BookBrowse is an online magazine for booklovers - including reviews, previews, "behind the book" backstories, author interviews, reading guides, and much more.

California Libraries Catalog is a unique database that shows the holdings of books, videos, audio, maps, and other materials held by libraries in California. Each public library in the state now has a subscription to FirstSearch, the search engine to WorldCat and the California Libraries Catalog. First Search is the tool that looks for books and other library materials by author, title, format, publisher, and many other search terms.

Calisphere is the University of California’s free public gateway to a world of digitized primary sources. Easy to use! Calisphere contains more than 150,000 photographs, documents, and works of art.

Ebony is one of the key African-American magazines of the 20th century, covering 20th and 21st-Century current events, art, design, politics and culture, literature, advertising, and more. Their editorial philosophy is to “showcase the best and brightest as well as highlighting the disparities in Black life in the United States and worldwide”. The Ebony Magazine Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text for the complete archive (including Covers and Advertisements) beginning in November 1945 to June 2014.

The Folger Shakespeare brings you the complete works of one of the world’s greatest playwrights and poets. Whether you’re a Shakespeare lover, student, teacher, or scholar, the Folger Shakespeare is a trusted resource for Shakespeare’s plays and poems and for information about his life and world.

This resource searches across the following Literary databases in Gale Literary Sources:
Gale Literature Resource Center
Gale Literature: Something about the Author

Find up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras.

Something about the Author examines the lives and works of authors and illustrators for children and young adults.

hoopla BingePass lets you, well, binge! Entire collections of streaming content are at your fingertips with just one borrow. Each borrow allows you to consume as much content as you want for 7 days. Not done? Check out another pass!

Each Kids' BingePass offers eBooks, eAudiobooks, and/or Streaming video focused on fun subjects, popular publishers, and more.  Check them out!

Current BingePass Options:

• Reading Corner
• Kids' Books in Action
• Hellosaurus
• Highlights Collection
• KidzVidz
• STEAM Powered Kids
• Cuentos para niños en español
• Growing Up: Social-Emotional Learning
• Read-Along to Learn
• Learn About the World

Submit your indie-published book here and share your eBooks with patrons of Alameda County Library and libraries throughout California. The best submissions are curated, featured, and promoted by Library Journal, Overdrive, and other notable organizations and businesses.

Take advantage of all the Library of Congress offers - from home! Digital Collections features thousands of items in hundreds of subject areas.

This ground-breaking project, launched in celebration of Native American Heritage Month, is an interactive online map that features audio recordings of 47 contemporary Native American poets, including Louise Erdrich, Natalie Diaz, and Ray Young Bear, among many others.  The project was conceived by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

With LOTE4Kids, kids can now enjoy 3000+ read-along eBooks in over 65+ languages, including American (ASL), British (BSL), New Zealand (NZSL), and Australian Sign Language (AUSLAN), together with English translations. Check out our Quick Start Guide.

This free online service showcases the newest titles purchased by Alameda County Library. You can choose to receive alerts via email and/or RSS feeds. If you see a new title that you are interested in, just click "borrow" to place a hold on the item right away.

With an extensive list of publications from around the globe, NewspaperArchive.com includes billions of newspaper articles dating back to 1607 and extends to the present day. Immerse yourself in rich historical content, as every newspaper within this archive is fully searchable by keyword and date. Whether you're exploring major cities or discovering the hidden stories of small towns, NewspaperArchive.com offers an unparalleled experience for everyone. 

Novelist K-8 will help you find a new book or old favorite; read-alikes and award-winning titles.

So many books! Find books by author, title, subject, genre, location, type of character, and much more. Novelist plus

Oxford Dictionaries Premium is the home of our premium language resources for English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. 

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.

The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language.

The Palace Project app gives Alameda County Library members one way to browse, borrow, and read eBooks and eAudiobooks.  With one login and as few as three clicks, you can start discovering and reading our entire collection of nearly 300,000 eBooks and eAudiobooks. Read OverDrive titles, exclusive titles from Audible and Amazon, and much more!

The Poetry Foundation, the publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. 

Create a professional-looking eBook, or format your book for printing.

Bring books to life with TeachingBooks! Watch author videos, explore book trailers, listen to read-along audiobooks, and play book-themed games. TeachingBooks supports homework assignments, helps you find the right book, and adds fun to reading time. Great for kids, teens, families, and educators.

This resource was formerly called Book Connections.