Numerous libraries have digitized their contents to make them available to interested users. In this article you will find a series of free online platforms where you can consult and download content completely legally from your preferred device.
Europeana: This interesting online book project belongs to the EU. The different countries that comprise it nurture this digital library of varied content since 2008, so you can download it from books and articles to maps, sounds, illustrations, paintings or cinema, completely free of charge.
World Digital Library: This digital library born in 2009 and known as the WDL depends on the United States Library of Congress and UNESCO. Thanks to the multiple contributions from numerous countries, it offers a wide spectrum of content in Spanish, which you will easily find through its effective search engine. Especially its rich variety of historical and cultural information stands out.
National Library of Spain: The online version of the National Library of Spain allows any user of the network to access for free to consult, read and download documents from the last 500 years. From its digital newspaper section to its Museum, Activities, Catalog, Collections or Services sections, we find ourselves before one of the most complete free digital libraries.
Gutemberg Project: This valuable digital collection is possible thanks to the collaboration of thousands of volunteers. Despite the fact that the main bulk is in English, there are also numerous contents in Spanish. Here you can access more than 20,000 digital books, and more than 100,000 if we take into account the websites that are affiliated and that we can find on their website. Free, legal, and in various formats for your electronic and reading devices.
Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library: An ideal place and a very well-designed website with excellent design to consult free historical data, biographies of important figures, read poetry or expand your information on literature, especially Spanish and Latin American.
Virtual Library of Bibliographic Heritage: Another online project promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, which gives you free access to all kinds of collections of manuscripts and digitized printed books that are part of the Spanish Historical Heritage. Avoid complex, difficult and tedious searches thanks to its online search engine.
Virtual Library of Historical Press: This platform was created after the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture, the Autonomous Communities and other institutions to digitize the Historical Press published in Spain and thus preserve its memory. With this complete digital newspaper archive of Spanish press you can search for any word or content from national newspapers and publications.
Wikisource: This is one of the valuable online resources of the Wikimedia Foundation that offers a compilation of free texts under the GFDL or Creative Commons license. Spanish is one of the languages in which material is available, with 112,548 texts currently in Spanish.
The Valencian Digital Library (BIVALDI), in charge of digitalisation, preserved and disseminated the sources of the bibliographic and documentary heritage of the Valencian Library Nicolau Primitiu; superior library center of the Valencian Generalitat.
In addition, Bivaldi made various fillings of the Valencian culture d’altres entitats
Digital Library of the Royal Botanical Garden: If you are a botanical lover, this is your reference digital library, with abundant scientific-historical material for research and learning about plant species.
Spanish Archives Portal (PARES): This initiative belongs to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, which set out to disseminate the extensive Spanish Documentary Historical Heritage in digital format. If you want to consult any of their documents and take a look at their digitized images, this website is ideal.
