Terms of use

Great Books Search helps teachers find passages in public-domain texts. By creating an account or using the site you agree to these terms. If you use it on behalf of a school, you confirm you’re allowed to.

Keep your password to yourself and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You’re responsible for what happens under it. Accounts are for teachers and school staff, not students.

Your courses, reading lists, notes and searches are yours. You give us permission to store and process them only to run the service for you and the colleagues you share them with. Don’t enter students’ personal information.

The passages come from public-domain editions and translations, with their sources recorded. They may differ from the edition your students use, and a text or citation may contain errors. Treat results as sign-posts back to the book, and check the line there.

• Don’t try to get around usage limits, or scrape or bulk-download the site.
• Don’t interfere with the service, probe it for weaknesses without permission, or access other people’s accounts.
• Don’t use it for anything unlawful.

We may suspend an account that breaks these rules.

The free tier is meant to stay free for individual teachers. Its limits may change; if they tighten, we’ll give notice. School licenses are agreed separately in writing.

We work to keep the service available and accurate, but it’s provided as it is, without warranties. To the extent the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect losses, and our total liability is limited to what you’ve paid us in the past twelve months.

You can stop using the service and ask us to delete your account at any time. We may end the service with reasonable notice, and we’ll help you take a copy of your reading lists and notes first.

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we’ll say so here and email account holders. Questions go to hello@greatbooksearch.com.