Z-Library wasn’t only used to download novels, it was also a great resource for hard-to-find or expensive academic textbooks. Now that the seemingly inevitable happened, all that was left was for faithful Z-Library users to mourn their loss online. So many of us do not have access to libraries (digital and physical) and it was our only source to write books and articles. This cruel gatekeeping of sources of knowledge and learning enrages me. Zlibrary died today, it was shut down by the gatekeepers in the global north. “Normalize blaming booktok for all your problems they are actually the root of all your problems,” said one Twitter user sharing the news that TikTok banned the hashtag #zlibrary for piracy. Many pointed their fingers at “booktok” or TikTok’s community of bookworms who would often namedrop Z-Library “for clout.” Naturally, people looked for who to blame. Those trying to access the website found out it won’t load and when it did load, there was a message that reads: “ This domain has been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service in accordance with a court order.” Pretty serious-sounding stuff. No one really knows exactly what happened. Z-lib is now gone i’m blaming everyone who can’t keep their mouth shut why wHY

But now, it looks like authorities have caught up to Z-Library. And if you wanted to download more than 10 a day, you’d only have to pay a small fee. Reports even say that at its peak, Z-Library had 10 million books and over 86 million articles available for anyone for free. The website is one of the largest online shadow libraries housing everything from fiction novels to academic journals. You could almost hear the agonized cries from bookworms and students collectively finding out last November 3 that Z-Library is inaccessible.

Alternative to zlibrary