eBooks for All California

Application period for the 2025-26 program year opens January 8, 2025!

eBooks for All is California’s Statewide eBook Library where every California reader can discover a book to capture the imagination or learn something new. All California’s public libraries are eligible to join the project and make the collection available to their users. No matter how big or how small your local eBook collection is, your community will have free unlimited access to eBooks wherever and whenever they want.

The project uses an eBook aggregator, Palace, to allow users to access the shared statewide collection in addition to their local collection. Now, libraries can offer Boundless, CloudLibrary, or Libby to their users all through one app.

The eBooks for All project can be accessed by anyone with a library card from a participating California public library.

If your library is not on Palace and would like to join, please email ebooksforall@library.ca.gov to begin the sign-up process. You can join today with no onboarding or ongoing costs!

The statewide collection contains over 50,000 titles and over 150,000 copies in over 20 languages that reflect the diverse reading interests and needs of California communities, including over 3,300 titles with unlimited access — no waitlist or hold queues to borrow the material. Every month California libraries invest in the statewide collection and expand shared digital shelves for California readers.

Project Impact

150,000+

copies in the statewide collection

130+

participating libraries

50,000+

different titles

26.6M+

Californians covered by participating libraries

Over 110 libraries have lent an eBook through the eBooks for All project. Overall, eAudiobooks make up more than 60% of circulations. In 2023 and 2024, circulation has grown by an average of 9% every month.

Always Available eAudiobooks from Blackstone Unlimited Audio

Libraries on the eBooks for All project can now provide their patrons with over 3,300 Always Available eAudiobooks. Any public library can provide their patrons with unlimited access to Death of Prankster by M.C. Beaton or The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix or The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. These titles, along with over 3,300 others, are all available to California Palace libraries and their users with no waiting, no holds and no limits.

Book jackets for four books: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter, I am Legend by Richard Matheson, and We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

 An August 2024 press release describes the Always Available Unlimited Listens in more detail.

The eBooks for All Summit

The State Library’s yearly summit convene California library workers to talk with colleagues and invited guests about the benefits and challenges of eBook libraries in California. Past sessions have focused on publishing trends, licensing agreements, data-driven decision making, and lending models from libraries across the United States.

If you are interested in assisting with the 2025 summit by planning, presenting, or joining as an audience member, please email the eBooks for All team at ebooksforall@library.ca.gov. 

How eBooks for All Works

Over a collage of book covers, the words Browse Download Read are displayed in white text. At the bottom of the image a four colored logo for the Palace Project is displayed beside the words The Palace Project thepalaceproject.org

Participating public libraries offer their cardholders access to the free, shared statewide collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks, many of which are simultaneous use. Libraries can make their Overdrive, CloudLibrary, and Boundless collections available alongside the statewide collection, all in one seamless, searchable app.

Users will no longer have to toggle between different providers to see the breadth of a library’s offerings, instead they can access all through the Palace Project’s eReader app. Libraries can simplify the way their users find their eBooks at the same time as expanding their collection with the statewide catalog of over 50,000 titles and 100,000 licenses.

How to Join

Enrollment in the eBooks for All project is open to all public libraries in California. If you are a library director and would like to join, you may email CAsupport@thepalaceproject.org to get started. From there, the Palace team will contact you with a request for configuration information. Generally, it takes between 1 and 4 weeks to have your library integrated into Palace. Once your library is set up inside the app, you will have the chance to use premade promotional materials to introduce this service to your community at a pace that is best for your library. You can preview these promotional materials and find and engage with other California libraries enrolled in eBooks for All in the Palace Project Community Hub.

If your library is interested in joining the project please email ebooksforall@library.ca.gov. The project partner may be able to assist with any onboarding costs.

We welcome and encourage tribal libraries to join this project. If you are a tribal library representative and are interested in the project, please email the state library at ebooksforall@library.ca.gov. Currently, there is one tribal library involved in the project.

Accessibility

The Palace application uses the Readium Rendering engine. Readium renders underlying EPUB text into Text-to-Speech (TTS) that can be read aloud by screen reader software. Mobile device screen readers such as Voice Over on iOS and TalkBack on Android platforms are compatible with the Readium Rendering engine to make the app more accessible. Mobile device screen readers provide access to text, menus, and navigation within the app to users with print disabilities.

Two phones display the graphical user interface of The Palace Project app. The four colored logo of the Palace Project is displayed alongside the words The Palace Project.

2024/2025 Collection Development Grants

In July 2024, the State Library awarded collection development grants for libraries to help develop the statewide collection. Nine libraries were awarded grants totaling almost $300,000. When combined with local funds, this new investment in the statewide collection will total more than $350,000 spent on more eBook materials for all of California.

These libraries will develop the collection in alignment with their own collection development policy, and the materials purchased will be available across the state to any library that participates in the program. Materials will be selected to fit a diverse set of project goals.

All projects are meeting together as a cohort to share lessons learned, compare data created by the project, and discuss how to make the shared statewide eBook collection more meaningful for all Californians.

The following libraries are participating in the 2024/2025 collection development grant:

  • Butte County Library
  • City of Huntington Beach
  • Inglewood Public Library
  • Oakland Public Library
  • Riverside County Library System
  • Santa Fe Springs City Library
  • Sonoma County Library
  • Stanislaus County
  • Ventura County Library

2023/2024 Collection Development Grants

The following libraries participated in the collection development grant:

  • Beaumont Library District
  • Butte County Library
  • Huntington Beach Public Library
  • Murrieta Public Library
  • Oakland Public Library
  • Santa Fe Springs City Library
  • Sonoma County Library
  • Stanislaus County Free Library
  • Sutter County Library