The Lean Library extension is a free tool which assists your library in delivering their services directly into your research workflow in more ways than one!

Lean Library: Your Library Services Tool on Firefox
Lean Library is a Firefox extension that greatly simplifies the research process for academic papers. This add-on notifies you when library materials are available on a website, redirects you to these resources avoiding paywalls and multiple log-ins, and unlocks access to millions of free-to-read academic papers. It also provides seamless redirection to open access materials even for those unaffiliated with an institution. Additionally, it aims to deliver additional library services through its Futures feature.
Add-on stats
Manifest V3
By: TfS Extensions
Rating: 2.91
(58)
Weekly download count: 245
Firefox on Android: No
Permissions:
- storage
- tabs
- alarms
- activeTab
- webNavigation
- contextMenus
- unlimitedStorage
Host permissions:
- http://*/*
- https://*/*
- <all_urls>
Size: 12.10M
Email: su*****@leanlibrary.com
URLs: Website ,Privacy policy
Full description: See detailed description
Ranking
# 658
Other platforms
Not available on Android
User reviews
Pros
- Facilitates access to scientific literature through university libraries
- Users find it incredibly useful despite its shortcomings
- Helps replicate the 'on campus' experience for remote users
Cons
- Significantly slows down browser performance
- Always active without options to disable or manage its activation on certain websites
- Often causes issues with other extensions and websites, leading to broken functionality
Most mentioned
- Slow performance and high resource usage
- Lack of the ability to turn off or blacklist websites
- Frequent pop-ups for institution sign-in on unnecessary sites
User reviews
by Sidibe, 2025-02-17
by 远离中共邪教快退出党团队, 2025-02-12
This would be a 5-star extensions if the performance wasn't so terrible, especially on websites like youtube or facebook where it shouldn't even be active. There really should be a way to create a blacklist of websites to disable the extension. The disable switches in the popup don't work most of the time, or have weird behaviour
by Lourdeau, 2024-12-14
Add-on safety
Risk impact
Lean Library requires some sensitive permissions that could impact your browser and data security. Exercise caution before installing.
Risk impact analysis details
- Critical Grants access to browser tabs, which can be used to track user browsing habits and history, presenting a privacy concern.
- Critical ****** ****** ** *** ********* ****** * *********** ******** **** ** ** *** ******* *** ****** **** **** *** ******* *****
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- Low ******* ****** ** *** ********* ********
Risk likelihood
We don't have sufficient data to confidently determine the risk likelihood of Lean Library. Use it at your own risk.
Risk likelihood analysis details
- High This extension was recently updated in the past month. New updates may not be stable or safe.
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- Medium **** ********* *** *** **** *******
- Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
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