Lean Library

A library-approved tool to unlock access to academic papers.

Users200K

Rating3.5

Reviews142

Manifest versionV3

7-day growth0

7-day growth rate0%

Preview

Lean Library Media preview

2 assets

Trend

30-day user trend

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User Growth Over Time

Rating trend

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30-day rating change

Start

3.46

Latest

3.46

30-day rating change

0.00

2026年5月29日2026年6月4日

Growth overview

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1-day growthFlat

00%

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Technical snapshot

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Version2026.5.0

ManifestV3

Size11.91MiB

Languages1English

Published--

Store updated--

Last crawled--

Overview

Product summary

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Providing an uninterrupted research rhythm

Lean Library is a free end-to-end research tool that brings your library’s services and resources directly into your research workflow, no matter where you start your research. Whether you are discovering and accessing academic content or saving references, Lean Library puts your library right at the heart of every research journey. Instantly and legally unlock millions of academic articles, eBooks, and open access content, avoid paywalls, and receive customised guidance from your library. Save references, highlight and annotate content, get journal alerts, and build information literacy skills with article retraction alerts and trust ratings—all from within your browser.

Ready to start using Lean Library?

Install the extension, select your institution and begin researching! Even if you aren’t

affiliated with an institution, you can still get quick and seamless redirection to open access materials absolutely free by downloading the extension and selecting Lean Library Open as your library.

Please note, the Lean Library browser extension works together with Lean Library

Reviews

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The Chrome Web Store shows 142 reviews, but only 0 review bodies have synced into ExtScope so far. Showing the synced reviews available right now.

5★

4★

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Электронные ресурсы РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена

Accessibility

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AI product read

Browser extension that provides legal, library-proxied access to paywalled academic papers, eBooks, and open access content directly within the user's research workflow

Researchers and students frequently hit publisher paywalls when trying to access academic literature. This extension detects paywalled content and automatically redirects through the user's institutional library proxy for legal access, maintaining an uninterrupted research flow.

Install extension → Select institution (or Lean Library Open) → Browse academic databases/websites → Extension detects paywalled articles → Automatically redirects through library proxy for authenticated access → Optionally save references to Workspace, highlight/annotate, and receive alerts

Target users: University students and researchers / Academic faculty and staff / Library patrons affiliated with subscribing institutions / Independent researchers using Lean Library Open for free open-access content

Source code is heavily minified making deep function-level analysis difficult
Cannot determine if Lean Library Workspace (companion service) has its own paid tiers
Cannot confirm the exact nature of institutional authentication flow within the extension vs. browser-level redirects

Monetization

No paid features detected

The store description explicitly states 'Lean Library is a free end-to-end research tool.' No evidence of in-extension payment gating, subscription flows, Stripe/payment platform integrations, premium tier UI, or upgrade prompts was found in the source code. The 'pro' keyword hits were all false positives from minified React code and license headers. The extension itself does not gate any features behind payment.

Confidence: 80
Payment platform: --
Source: AI / Medium
Login required: Yes
Reason: The extension requires users to select an institutional affiliation during setup. The store description states 'select your institution and begin researching' and 'Create an account at workspace.leanlibrary.com.' Source code shows external hosts workspace.leanlibrary.com with /annotator/signed_in and /annotator/logout endpoints, and login.openathens.net/signout (institutional SSO). While the extension can work with 'Lean Library Open' without a formal institution, the full core workflow (unlocking paywalled content) depends on institutional authentication proxied through the library system.

Permission risk

High-risk permissions

This estimate uses declared permissions and host permissions to assess access scope and sensitivity.

扩展能力较强：storage、tabs、activeTab
主机权限覆盖范围较宽
同时具备浏览数据与站点访问能力

Publisher

Lean Library

Matt Moran

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +447840655563
Address: 1 Oliver's Yard City Road London EC1Y 1SP GB

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Permissions

Host access