As you already know, OPL branches, Bookmobile stops, and Homebound delivery services, are temporarily closed starting Monday, March 16, 2020 to support efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 in Ottawa.

While our physical locations are closed, we remain committed to serving the public online.

The OPL is enriching and strengthening its digital collection to better serve you. Below you’ll find highlights of our enhanced digital services to keep you and your family entertained and educated during this critical time:

• OPL has purchased more eBooks and eAudio with added copies of high demand titles, and many new titles in French and English for adults, teens and children.  Look for bestsellers in our Express eBook collection and more French eBooks on Cantook Station than we've ever had.
• Ancestry Library, a very popular genealogy resource, is available for home access for the first time. This remote access will be valid temporarily until September 30, 2021., before it returns to in-library use only.
• Customers can have unlimited access to Kanopy Kids without affecting their play credit. Kids can enjoy quality education content like Sesame Street, Arthur, and even benefit from language learning series. Users can set up parental controls to make sure their kids are viewing age-appropriate content on Kanopy
• Our vendor Tumblebooks has offered us a new eResource for romance readers: RomanceBookCloud with many romance novels to choose from
• New York Times has listened to our request for more access passes – they have given OPL 80 more for a total of 200 remote access per day. Customers can use their pass for 72-hours (3 days). After the rollout, a maximum of 600 customers will be able to remotely access the NYT simultaneously per day.We hope this improved access will provide customers with more opportunity to read the NYT - this leading North American newspaper through the OPL Online Resources portal.
• We just launched iPolitics on March 23 for political news junkies: Cutting-edge coverage of Canadian politics, policy and the business of government. We are proud to say that OPL is the first Canadian public library to offer iPolitics.

• The Ottawa Public Library is now providing its remote access to Grant Connect database. In light of recent library closures and funding shortages, we want to ensure our customers, especially small charities and nonprofits continue to have access to Grant Connect to search thousands of grant opportunities and make fundraising more efficient. This remote access will be valid temporarily until July 31, 2020

• The Ottawa Public Library is now providing access to Infobase_Home Study Resources.  This portal includes 15 subject-specific online databases and non-fiction eBooks covering a wide range of grades and subjects. It will be helpful to students studying at home during the COVID-19 school closures.  Free access will be valid until July 10, 2020.  Here is the login information: Username: OttawaPL   &  Password: digital

• Lynda.com has announced that they will respect library cardholders' privacy, and have backed away from their projected new model that would have required LinkedIn membership/sign-in.  We await the launch of their new platform that will make more courses available, and a large part of it in several languages, including French.

• Bibliotheca's Cloud eBook platform doubled its server capacity due to unprecedented demand.  This improves access to our Express eBook and French eAudio collection.

• Macmillan has dropped its embargo on new titles.

• eduMedia makes its educational resources available free of charge to help learners to study science concepts in eight different languages.  Here is login inforamtion:  Username: covid19      Password: edumedia

• The Ottawa Public Library is proud to announce access to the French-language database Toutapprendre. The resource offers a wealth of free and unlimited online courses.

  Take advantage of the rich offering of videos such as 30 hours of yoga, coding for kids, how to use Office 365, language learning (English, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish...), 20 hours of preparation for the IELTS exam, singing lessons, and much, much more!

• We just added Worxica, a free job and career  database which will be very useful for job seekers and recruiters especially after COVID-19 pandemic.

• To support safety measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, Naxos has generously doubled the number of simultaneous users for its five databases until July 31, 2020, so that fans can enjoy music and video from the comfort of their homes.  Naxos Music Library 20 ->40 ; Naxos Music Library Jazz  20 ->40;  Naxos Music Library World  5->10; Naxos Spoken Word Library  5 ->10;  Naxos Video Library 5 ->10.

• Exciting news for local history buffs and genealogists -The OTTAWA CITIZEN (1845-2010) digital heritage edition is now available for our customers from the comfort of your home starting from May 1,2020

You can also find a comprehensive list of our digital resources on our website. This includes access to e-books, research e-journals, online newspapers and magazines, and resources for young learners