There’s no shortage of online resources that you can enjoy while you’re staying home. As always, our favorites are:
- eBooks and Audiobooks – Download the Libby app on your device and get started!
- Flipster – Your one-stop-shop for digital magazines. Download them to either your computer or tablet.
Here are some other things that we have our eye on. Check back! We’ll keep adding to this page as we find more resources that we love.
For Everyone
- All About Birds – Your online guide to birds and bird watching from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
- Ancestry Library Edition – Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to library cardholders working remotely, courtesy of ProQuest and its partner Ancestry.
- Baseball by Ken Burns – Missing sports? This PBS documentary is streaming for free!
- Digital Escape Room Series – Calling all library detectives! Can you save our library from the Phantom? Try our new digital escape rooms, The Phantom of the Library and The Phantom of the Library Returns Good luck!
- I Love NY Virtual Field Trips & Tours – Stuck inside but still want to experience all that our great state has to offer? Here’s a collection of virtual events, online tours, and live cams.
- Lynda Learning – Learn a new skill or brush up on something fun with over 3,000 courses offered.
- Mango Languages – It’s the perfect time to learn a new language with Mango.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art – View many exhibits from the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Google’s Arts and Culture collection.
- Metropolitan Opera – Nightly Met operas streaming for free.
- Nature Works Everywhere Virtual Field Trips – See nature in a new way!
- New York Public Library’s eBooks – All New York residents can now access the New York Public Library’s ebook collections. Visit this website and download the SimplyE app on your device. Once downloaded it will prompt you fill out an elibrary card. Choose NY Public for your home library and start borrowing books.
- Phelps Mansion – Our friends at Phelps Mansion in Binghamton did a terrific Facebook Live tour of their beautiful facility!
- Print & Play Games – Tired of the games you have at home? The American Library Association has links to some that you can print and play!
- Roberson Museum & Science Center – Our friends at Roberson have great virtual field trips on their Facebook and Instagram pages. You can also stream planetarium shows from home and submit your COVID-19 stories.
- The Show Must Go On – A YouTube channel that’s releasing a different Andrew Lloyd Webber musical every Friday which will be available all weekend.
- Virtual Museum Tours – Tour the British Museum in London; The Dalí in St. Petersburg, FL; the Louvre in Paris; or the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. all without leaving your house!
- Yellowstone National Park Virtual Tour – Explore the wonder and beauty of Yellowstone National Park. Looking for other national park tours? Check here for other options!
For Kids (& Kids at Heart)
- Animal Fun – Love animals, but can’t make it to the zoo or aquarium? Visit them virtually with Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari, National Aquarium Live Cams, New England Aquarium Virtual Visits, San Diego Zoo for Kids, and Virtual Dairy Farm Tours!
- Authors Everywhere YouTube Channel – A great new collection of read-alouds and activities from tons of your favorite authors!
- BreakoutEDU Fun at Home – Super fun online games for kids in grades K-12 labelled by grade level and content area!
- Carmen Sandiego Resources – Games and activities with everyone’s favorite sleuth.
- Code.org – Great coding and computer games, activities and videos! Try an Hour of Code or Coding with Star Wars.
- Dav Pilkey at Home – Get creative and have fun with some of your favorite characters from Dog Man and Captain Underpants! New videos and activities are available every Friday.
- Day by Day NY – Daily read alouds, songs and activities for family literacy including free access to a book each day from One More Story.
- DC Kids Camp – Families can have super-powered fun with their favorite DC superhero authors and artists. Check them out on Twitter and Instagram!
- Draw Everyday with JJK – Daily drawing lessons for people of all ages from author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka are live at 2pm or available anytime after.
- Facebook – Several of our favorite authors, illustrators, and performers are creating great content on Facebook! Check out Chris Van Dusen, Dan Gutman, Gail Carson Levine, Laurie Berkner, Peter Reynolds, Pinkalicious, and Tony DiTerlizzi.
- Free Books! – These companies have generously opened up their services during this unprecedented time to make sure that all children have access to books.
- Audible Stories – Audible is offering free access to a huge collection of audio stories while schools are closed!
- myON Digital Library – On the login page enter School Name: New York Reads, Username: read, and Password: books to begin exploring their collection!
- Tumblebook Collection – The following resources are available to us for free until the end of August. Use these links to access TumbleBook Library, TumbleMath, Teen Book Cloud, and AudioBook Cloud.
Thank you to all of these companies for supporting children and literacy during this time. We appreciate you!
- Goodnight with Dolly – Dolly Parton reads bedtime stories chosen from the selections in her Imagination Library.
- Harry Potter At Home Hub – Bringing the world of Harry Potter to you with videos, games, quizzes, drawing, and more! You can also read or listen to the first Harry Potter book on Overdrive with no wait during April!
- Instagram – Several of our favorite authors & illustrators are reading & drawing on Instagram! Check out Ben Clanton’s Miximal Mondays, Carson Ellis’ Quarantine Art Club, Daniel Miyares, Greg Pizzoli, Mac Barnett, Oliver Jeffers, Pinkalicious, Susan Verde, Vashti Harrison, and everyone’s buddy, Pete the Cat!
- Kids Ask Authors Podcast – Author & illustrator Grace Lin’s great new podcast where kids submit questions for their favorite authors to answer. It’s released Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays.
- Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems – Doodle together and explore ways of writing and making with a favorite author and illustrator. New episodes are posted weekdays at 1pm.
- Magic Tree House Home Adventures – Read and explore a different topic every week with Jack and Annie!
- Mission U.S. – Play games to learn about U.S. History!
- NatGeo @ Home – Find quizzes, videos, science experiments, and more from National Geographic.
- New York State Museum Virtual Field Trips – These field trips are on Facebook Live every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1:00pm. Visit their YouTube page after 2:00pm to watch the video from that day’s exploration!
- Rick Steves Classroom Europe – Short, searchable clips from Rick Steves Europe showing great scenes and information from all over Europe.
- Santat Online Survival School for the Pandemic – An informative and comedic guide complete with badges and some real world prizes! Check it out on Instagram, Twitter or his website for lots of fun.
- Save with Stories – An incredible cast of celebrities reading aloud on Instagram to raise money for Save the Children and No Kid Hungry.
- Scholastic Learn at Home – Day-by-day projects to keep kids learning, thinking, and growing.
- Smithsonian’s Fun Stuff for Kids – Make learning fun with great games and activities.
- Steve Spangler’s Science Experiments – Fun science experiments using things you have around the house.
- Storyline Online – Picture books read online by some of your favorite actors!
- Write. Right. Rite. – Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and all around awesome author, is releasing writing prompt videos as part of his “Grab the Mic: Tell Your Story” video series!
- WSKG Education – Our friends at WSKG Education have so many helpful resources including their Kids in Motion videos, Learn at Home TV schedule, and PBS Kids & WSKG Youth Writers Contests.
- YouTube – Several of our favorite authors & illustrators are reading or chatting about writing on YouTube! Check out Aaron Reynolds, Anna Kang, Aron Steinke, Bob Shea, Brian Biggs, Christian Robinson, Eric Carle, Grace Lin, Jan Brett, Kate DiCamillo, Molly Idle, Sophie Blackall, and Stay Home with Candlewick Press.
COVID-19 Information
- Centers for Disease Control – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
- Free Comics and Resources in Graphic Form on COVID-19 – https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=comic-relief-free-resources-on-covid-19-coronavirus-graphic-novels-webcomics
- Free eBooks About Coronavirus – https://nycdoe.libguides.com/COVID-19ebooks/free
- NYS Department of Health – https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/coronavirus/ or call their toll free hotline at 1-888-364-3065.
- Rural Health Network – https://rhnscny.org/ or call 607-798-8058. They’re helping community members to locate resources related to food, transportation, health, and more.
- Scholastic’s Coronavirus Resources for Children – https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/coronavirus.html
- World Health Organization – https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus