If you have not signed up yet
What you can do without a Library Card.
Most people who come to the Library never sign up for anything, and that is fine. The Library was built to be read by anyone, with no account and no fee. This page tells you what you can do as a visitor, and when it might be worth signing up.
What you can do without signing up
Everything that is published is open to you. You can:
- Read every chapter of the three books in the Reading Room.
- Read every state page in the Atlas.
- Read every map in the Map Room and every fund table in the Counting House.
- Read every essay in Voices and every weekly note in the Newsroom.
- Read every published book review.
- Read every open discussion thread.
- Search across the whole site using the search box at the top of every page.
- Save URLs in your own browser bookmarks the same way you would save any other web page.
You do not need to identify yourself for any of that. The Library does not require sign-in to read.
What you cannot do without signing up
A few things do need an account, because they leave a record attached to your name. You cannot:
- Submit feedback on a page.
- Submit a correction to a page.
- Write a review of one of the books.
- Reply to a discussion thread, or start a new one.
- Upload files (a photograph, a letter, a scanned record).
All of these require a Library Card, because the librarians need to know who sent the feedback, who proposed the correction, who wrote the review, and who is speaking in the conversation. The Card is what carries your name and ticket history.
When you might want to sign up
There are really only three reasons to sign up. The first is that you have read something on the Library and found one thing you would correct — a date, a number, a missing source. The second is that you have read one of the books and want to write a review. The third is that you want to take part in a conversation about something the Library publishes.
If none of those is true today, you do not need an account. Come back when one of them is true.
How to sign up
Visit /library-card/. The Library Card is free, forever, with no payment of any kind. The sign-up form asks for your email address and not much else, and the whole process takes about a minute. You will get an email with a sign-in link. Click it, and you have a Card.
If you get stuck on the sign-up form, there is a Submit feedback link at the bottom of every page — including /library-card/ itself. Send a note and a librarian will help.
More on tiers and advancement: /pro/roles/ — the institutional ladder, with the full list of recognition and stewardship paths.
