Browsing the Stacks: A Photo Appreciation of Libraries

As the days grow shorter, one might feel a strong urge to find a warm place indoors and cozy up to a good book. As much as our world hurtles toward digitized information, physical books remain popular, useful, and revered items. We share, use, collect, and read billions of books every year, and we house our most treasured ones in libraries, in some of the most remarkable architecture around the world. And for those who cannot access these amazing buildings, there are volunteers who fill the need as they can, creating mobile libraries to bring books to people in remote places. Today, a visual feast—glimpses of libraries big and small, new and old, from across the globe.

Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

Most Recent

  • © Karsten Mosebach / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025

    Winners of the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025

    A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition

  • ESA / Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

    The 35th Anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope

    A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope

  • Andrew Harnik / Getty

    Photos of the Week: Pony Run, Corgi Race, Rocket War

    Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican, scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025, a humanoid-robot half-marathon in China, and much more

  • Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty

    Photographing the Beauty of the North

    Images of the people, animals, and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions, photographed by Olivier Morin