Anna's ArchiveAnna's Archive is an open sourcesearch 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.
Digital rights managementTechnology to control access to copyrighted works and prevent unauthorized copyingDigital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works.
Sci-HubScientific research paper file sharing websiteSci-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.
Library GenesisLibrary Genesis (shortened to LibGen) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to works that are otherwise paywalled or not digitized elsewhere.
Z-LibraryZ-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. According to the website's own data released in February 2023, its collection comprised over 13.35million books and over 84.8million articles. Z-Library is particularly popular in emerging economies and among academics.
Oxford University PressOxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford.
HarperCollinsBritish-American publishing companyHarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British-American multinationalpublishingconglomerate that is considered to be one of the "Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is headquartered in London and New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The company's name is derived from a combination of the firm's predecessors.
Digital mediaIn mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic device, including digital data storage media (in contrast to analog electronic media) and digital broadcasting.
Academic publishingAcademic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted on the Internet is often called "grey literature".
PaywallA paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of decline in paid print readership and advertising revenue, partly due to the use of ad blockers. In academics, research papers are often subject to a paywall and are available via academic libraries that subscribe.UbuWebUbuWeb is a digital library of freely downloadable avant-garde art, film, music as well as visual, concrete and sound poetry. The site includes mp3 archives of early internet and sound art. The site was created by poet Kenneth Goldsmith in 1996 to provide web-based educational resources to "a substantial user base."
EbookAn ebook (short for "electronic book"), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book", some e-books exist without a printed equivalent.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.