Google Scholar Button
Tools
Lookup scholarly articles as you browse the web.
Users
3M
Rating
4.6
Reviews
1,427
7D Growth
--|--
Stable signalNo paid features detectedHigh-risk permissions
Lean Library
A library-approved tool to unlock access to academic papers.
Users200KCurrent public install base
Rating3.4Store average score
Reviews142Public review volume
Manifest versionV3Extension platform version
7-day growth0Net users gained this week
7-day growth rate0%Relative weekly velocity
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2 assetsLean Library Media preview
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Start
3.43
Latest
3.43
7-day rating change
0.00
2026年7月15日2026年7月21日
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Version2026.5.0
ManifestV3
Size11.91MiB
Languages1English
Published
Store updated
Last crawled
English
Overview
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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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Store average score3.4Chrome Web Store aggregate rating, including ratings without synced review text
Synced text average3.1Average computed only from synced review bodies below
Reviews with text103Synced review bodies
Total ratings / reviews142Chrome Web Store public rating/review count
Store average score: 3.4. The bars below are calculated from synced review text only, so they may be empty for extensions that have public ratings but no synced comments yet.
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Электронные ресурсы РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена
Accessibility
Удаленный доступ к электронным ресурсам из подписки РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена
Users
3K
Rating
4.7
Reviews
6
7D Growth
-1K|-25%
The Sciwheel extension worked seamlessly, while this new one breaks constantly and does not allow use of the reference manager without significant effort. I've had to delete and re-install this repeatedly since it keeps breaking and removing the reference manager functionality. I am fully moving away from Lean Library now and looking into other reference managers.
Lean Library / Lean Library Workspace has to be one of the best tools I have ever used! This browser extension allowed me to see libguides that my institution had set up to support me through websites I may not be familiar with! I was able to get access seamlessly via Open Access to Full Text Articles :D the One Click to PDF feature is so useful! Man, I do not have to look through a maze to find the PDF I am looking for. Lean Library Workspace previously Sciwheel is so much better, it's refreshed and updated and I love how the UI integrated nicely into LL making it truly enjoyable experience. The support team are very helpful, from any technical queries I may have needed to just general questions, they respond quickly and their newsletter keeps me up to date with new features and developments! The team are doing a fantastic job! Would highly recommend downloading and sharing with friends and family, especially anyone who is starting out new at university!
Opens scite_ for no reason without permission, even when the entire extension is turned off. turns itself on again. extremely annoying.
Ok!
I've been a Sciwheel user for years, and I'm now in the third year of my PhD. Lean Library Workspace is great, it's like Sciwheel but with useful extras. I really like that I can now use Lean to find open access articles, it makes life a lot easier and saves me having to root around for a free version of the article I want to read. Saving articles is easy and while highlighting can be a bit off sometimes, issues happen so rarely for me now so I think something must have been updated for the better.
Terrible at highlighting on scientific articles. The highlight either saves in the workspace but not the page so I have to refresh the page for each new one to appear, saves incompletely on the page (incomplete on the page, okay in the workspace, which is unideal when I'm actively reading), or does not highlight at all so I have to refresh the page to save a single highlight (and refresh again to save each new one). I also don't appreciate that it does not ask what subfolder to save the article to upon the first highlight, the way Sciwheel used to. Sciwheel had a great system, I used it for 4 years with no complaints. Somehow Lean Library's acquisition has overcomplicated the extension and made it less functional. I've been hesitant to start over with a new citation manager since I have over a thousand articles saved, so I've been waiting for the initial bugs to be resolved. However, my patience is wearing thin as time goes on and issues remain unaddressed, and I'm increasingly tempted to jump ship on this one. I hope changes come soon.
Excellent
Muy bueno la verdad, recomendado para hacer trabajos. Mejor que otros gestores bibliográficos. Me gustaría que tuviera al menos 5 folders en la versión gratis, tal vez estoy pidiendo mucho XD
Another problem with YouTube: the scroll bar disappears and you can't scroll at all. As with everyone else it took a good deal of turning extensions off and on to find it was Lean Library.
Hi guys, Great tool, but currently there is a bug that makes YouTube notifications disappear on the desktop site. The issue is confirmed to be with this extension. Please report bug to your official developer channels. I will update this review after it is fixed. A 5 star extension extension that needs a fix for students who also enjoy youtube (many people).