Bookshelf

Vital Source Technologies Education

Use VitalSource Bookshelf® to read your textbooks and use valuable study tools.

Rating: 4.1; 18.6K ratings
Downloads: 5M+; on Google Play
Price: Free; No in-app purchases
Updated: Aug 11; 2026 · v11.4.2

Screenshots

About Bookshelf

Use Bookshelf to download and access books on your Android phone or tablet. Read your books online or offline, search across your full library, and create notes and highlights to help you study.

Bookshelf Features:

• Download books to your device for easy online or offline reading.
• Simple, user-friendly navigation and a clean reading experience.
• Search inside your book for a term or phrase.
• Select text to create notes or highlights from your mobile device.
• Tap to open figures, view captions, and pinch to zoom.
• Use text-to-speech to listen to your textbooks read aloud.
• Sync your bookmarks, current reading position, and all of your notes and highlights between your Android device, desktop, and Online Bookshelf apps.

Requirements:
• Android 5.0+

What’s new

Version 11.4.2 · Updated August 11, 2026

* Highlighting performance has been improved, especially for users with large * Improved app stability with fixes for crashes across all platforms * Stylus annotation support has been removed to improve overall reliability * Improved navigation when deep linking to specific figures and headings in EPUB books * Additional crash fixes

User reviews

Christy Crouch

I love this it makes it easier for me to do my school work

Nikki Lewis

Been using for two years at school and have had no issues. Very pleased.

Leonard Gomez

Very good and extremely helpful!

Da Sample Gang

Thanks for your support

Nisha Mudgal

Nice app

Emma-lee Sheldon

I am impressed! Lucky to have found this. I was tight on budget and E-textbook avenue I went. So far no problems, my phone is the same as my desktop. No issues at all. Happy too have an easy navigational app - with extras. Thanks

Frequently asked questions

What is Bookshelf?

Bookshelf is an app that allows you to download and access books on your Android phone or tablet. You can read your books online or offline, search through your entire library, and make notes and highlights for studying purposes.

How does Bookshelf work?

Bookshelf allows you to download books to your device for easy reading, either online or offline. It offers a user-friendly navigation and a clean reading experience. You can search inside your book, create notes and highlights, open figures, view captions, and even zoom in by pinching. Additionally, you can listen to your textbooks read aloud using the text-to-speech feature. Bookmarks, reading position, notes, and highlights can be synced between your Android device, desktop, and Online Bookshelf apps.

What are the features of Bookshelf?

Some of the features of Bookshelf include the ability to download books for offline reading, easy navigation, a clean reading experience, the ability to search within a book, the option to create notes and highlights, figure viewing, caption viewing, pinch-to-zoom functionality, text-to-speech feature for listening to textbooks, and the ability to sync bookmarks, reading position, notes, and highlights between Android devices, desktops, and Online Bookshelf apps.

What are the requirements to use Bookshelf?

To use Bookshelf, your Android device should be running on Android 5.0 or higher.

App details

Bookshelf is a free Education app for Android with 5,000,000+ installs on Google Play and a 4.1/5 average rating from 18,609 ratings. It was released on March 29, 2012 and last updated on August 11, 2026. It's developed by Vital Source Technologies. It requires Android 9 or later.

Category: Education
Rating: 4.1 / 5 (18,609)
Installs: 5,052,993
In-app purchases: No
Ads: No ads
Version: 11.4.2
Requires Android: 9
Content rating: Everyone
Released: March 29, 2012
Last updated: August 11, 2026
Developer: Vital Source Technologies

View on Google Play

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Alternatives to Bookshelf

Looking for apps like Bookshelf? Here are 6 similar Android apps on Google Play. The highest rated is ClinicalKey Student Bookshelf (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.

Bookshelf vs. alternatives
App	Rating	Price	Installs	Last updated	Compare
Bookshelf	4.1 / 5	Free	5,000,000+	Aug 11, 2026
ClinicalKey Student Bookshelf	5.0 / 5	Free	100,000+	Aug 19, 2026	Compare
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Deseret Bookshelf	3.5 / 5	Free	500,000+	Oct 7, 2026	Compare
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Readerly	4.7 / 5	Free	100+	Apr 12, 2021	Compare

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