-
Learn
-
Certifications
-
About our institution
- Instituto Cervantes
- A-ustralia
- Sídney
- Libraries
- Electronic Library
ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
From anywhere, at any time, on any device: the Instituto Cervantes electronic library is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with just an Internet connection. Access is included with your Gabriela Mistral Library membership card.
The Instituto Cervantes Electronic Library offers a wide range of online resources and services, including the borrowing and reading of e-books, listening to music and audiobooks, access to electronic resources (databases, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, directories, etc.), participation in virtual book clubs and film clubs, and more.
To use the Electronic Library’s resources and services exclusively, you must become a member through the Instituto Cervantes e-commerce platform. The membership fee is €14 per year.
for more information about our Electronic Library, please see the additional information available. If you still have any questions, feel free to leave us a message through our User Support Service.
The Leemos a Virtual Reading Club brings together readers from around the world to share and discuss outstanding works of Spanish and Latin American literature online, all of which are available in our e-book collection.
We also offer the E-LEemos: Graded Readings Virtual Reading Club, where participants can read and discuss Spanish texts adapted to different proficiency levels. Its aim is to help all Spanish learners develop their communicative and intercultural competence while improving their language skills.
Furthermore, our Mosaico Virtual Reading Club is dedicated to reading works in Catalan, Galician and Basque, providing a space for cultural exchange and dialogue where participants can enjoy and explore literature in these three co-official languages of Spain. The club also aims to promote their authors and broaden the literary and cultural offerings available through our online services.
These virtual reading clubs are always led by professional moderators and facilitators who encourage discussion and enrich the selected readings with materials and information about the works, their context, and their authors, who often take part in the online discussions themselves.
There are only two requirements to participate in these literary clubs: a suitable level of Spanish and a valid membership card for our Electronic Library or for any of the libraries that form part of the Instituto Cervantes Library Network.
We encourage you to join the Instituto Cervantes Virtual Reading Clubs, as explained in this brief guide, and to contact us if you have any questions.
The Cita con el Cine Virtual Film Club, organised by the Instituto Cervantes Library Network, is a service of the Electronic Library through which you can watch the scheduled films and documentaries and discuss them with people from around the world who share an interest in the seventh art.
Its aim is to encourage appreciation of Spanish and Latin American cinema, promote the work of our filmmakers, and, through the participation and moderation of directors, screenwriters, actors, critics, librarians, cultural managers, teachers, and other professionals, bring the film-making process closer to the public.
To take part in this space for cinematic discussion and learning, you need only two things: a good command of Spanish (at least B1 level) and a valid membership card for one of our libraries.
Electronic Library Resources
Borrow and download thousands of digital books on linguistics, Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE), classical and contemporary literature by Spanish and Latin American authors, history, art, science, and much more. We also offer publications and materials for children and young adults. Access our digital lending platform and enjoy our collection anytime, anywhere.
With this new way of reading, and with new titles added every day, you will be able to discover works from more than two hundred publishers around the world, as well as publications from the Instituto Cervantes and editions provided by partners such as the Spanish Association of University Presses (UNE), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and the publishing units of the Spanish General State Administration. The collection also includes magazines and audiovisual materials.
Through our Electronic Library, you can also borrow and download Spanish-language audiobooks by both classical and contemporary authors in their original versions, narrated by professional voice actors.
Audiobooks, an alternative to conventional reading, are recordings of a book’s content read aloud by a narrator. These recordings are presented in full, unabridged versions of the original works, narrated by a single voice and distributed in digital format.
They are particularly useful for learning and teaching languages, developing listening skills, making the most of leisure time or journeys on public transport, and even accompanying certain sports and fitness activities.
Audiobooks are also especially valuable for people with visual impairments, enabling them to access the best literature, and for children, who can enjoy listening to stories and narratives that match their interests.
Our audiobook collection includes classical works, contemporary fiction, children's literature, and titles on philosophy and thought. You can also access our audiobooks through the digital lending platform.
Our electronic library also provides access to the numerous electronic journals to which the Cervantes Institute library network subscribes.
In addition to these cultural and applied linguistics journals, a considerable number of multidisciplinary journal titles can also be found through searches across multiple databases, such as Digitalia, HAPI Online, and Dialnet Plus.
The library network offers members free access to a wide range of databases and other high-quality specialised information resources. A complete list of these resources is available, organised alphabetically and by subject.
Terms of use
The Cervantes Institute Electronic Library aims to make the digital content and services available through its extensive library network accessible to people around the world.
The annual membership fee for the Electronic Library is €14. Membership is available only to individuals and not to institutions, and is valid for one year from the date of purchase or renewal. Access to the Electronic Library is included among the services provided with the Gabriela Mistral Library membership card at the Cervantes Institute in Sydney.
The digital platforms that make up our Electronic Library contain links to external websites over which the Cervantes Institute has no control and for which it accepts no responsibility.
The Cervantes Institute Electronic Library is available exclusively for reading, study, and research purposes and is subject to the provisions of the Spanish Intellectual Property Act (Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996 of 12 April). Any other use requires prior written authorisation from the author(s) of the work and from the Libraries and Documentation Department of the Cervantes Institute for the use of this electronic version.
Accordingly, the reproduction, distribution, transmission, adaptation, or modification, by any means and in any form, of the contents and resources (including texts, designs, graphics, information, databases, audio or image files, logos, etc.) available through the digital platforms that comprise our Electronic Library is prohibited, except where prior express authorisation has been granted by the legitimate rights holders or where permitted by law.
Any commercial or advertising use of the aforementioned content, other than that expressly permitted where applicable, is also prohibited, as is the infringement of any rights arising from such content in general.
Mobile Applications
IC Virtual Book Clubs (Official)
Through the IC Virtual Book Clubs (Official) app, the Cervantes Institute also offers the option to join its virtual reading clubs and film club.
The IC Virtual Book Clubs (Official) app is available on both the App Store and Google Play.
Biblio-e Instituto Cervantes
The Cervantes Institute offers all library members the opportunity to access books and other materials from its Electronic Library through a dedicated mobile application: Biblio-e Instituto Cervantes.
Biblio-e Instituto Cervantes lets users borrow any title available in the Electronic Library catalogue and download it to their mobile device with a single click.
Through the app, you can browse the catalogue, borrow or reserve items, download books to your mobile device, and read them even when offline. In addition, Biblio-e Instituto Cervantes supports synchronisation across devices, allowing you to start reading on one device and continue on another, resuming exactly where you left off.
Download the Biblio-e Instituto Cervantes app from Google Play if you have an Android device (version 5.0 or later), or from the App Store if you have an Apple device (iOS 13 or later), and enjoy reading whenever and wherever you like.