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.
- 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. A GFJ Library card number is required.
- Mango Languages – It’s the perfect time to learn a new language with Mango. A GFJ Library card number is required.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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!
- BreakoutEDU Fun at Home – Super fun online games for kids in grades K-12 labelled by grade level and content area!
- 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, Captain Underpants, and more!
- 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.
- Draw Everyday with JJK – Drawing lessons and writing advice for people of all ages from author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka.
- 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, and Pinkalicious.
- 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!
- Harry Potter At Home Hub – Bringing the world of Harry Potter to you with videos, games, quizzes, drawing, celebrity readalouds, and more!
- Instagram – Several of our favorite authors & illustrators are reading & drawing on Instagram! Check out Ben Clanton’s Miximal Mondays, Mac Barnett, 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.
- 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!
- 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!
- The Princess in Black and the Case of the Coronavirus – Download the free pdf of this new graphic novel!
- Save with Stories – An incredible cast of celebrities reading aloud on Instagram to raise money for Save the Children and No Kid Hungry.
- 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 and Camp at Home resources.
- 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, Grace Lin, Jan Brett, 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