Suede for the Commons

Who it's for

Public libraries, school and university libraries, archives, and museums that offer public terminals or reading-room computers. If your institution puts knowledge in front of the public for free, this program is for you.

The terms, plainly

• Free for accepted reading rooms, permanently — not a pilot, not a trial, not a teaser for a paid tier.
• Institutions we accept keep their access even if the program later closes to new applicants.
• At least 300 searches per covered terminal per day — a floor, not a ceiling; limits may rise, never fall, for accepted institutions. Far beyond human use; it exists to stop scripts, not patrons.
• Your covered terminal count is stated at acceptance. Growing it later is a quick amendment.
• We admit institutions in cohorts as capacity allows — a waitlist keeps it fair and keeps the program solvent forever.

How it works

1. Apply below with your institution's details.
2. We verify eligibility and activate your reading-room IP ranges — no software, no accounts on the terminals, nothing to install or maintain.
3. Every browser on those terminals gets fast, private Suede search, anonymously. Patrons with their own Suede membership can still sign in on top.

Activation is by network location — a standing entitlement, not a login. There is nothing on the terminal to sign out of, steal, or wipe.

Patron privacy

Terminal searches are anonymous and treated exactly like member searches: no history kept, no profiles built, nothing sold. School cohorts get institution-level safe-search defaults.

Where it's available

Cohorts open for every member at once — Suede is one program on one platform, served from the United States and the United Kingdom today and more places as we grow. The same promises, everywhere we operate.

Apply

Room to grow

The reading-room edition covers the everyday search your patrons need. The full Suede — every view, rule, and customization, the API, and the professional tools we build next — stays available to your institution with discounted upgrade paths for staff and organizational use. Details arrive with your acceptance letter.