Reference library
All guides
69 guides, every one legally redistributable and traceable to its source.
131 HMMWV Technical Manuals collection
Complete operator + maintenance documentation for a real vehicle platform — demonstrates the depth possible with PD military manuals; popular with surplus-vehicle owners and preppers.
U.S. Army et al. (compiled on Internet Archive; TM 9-2320-280-10 also at liberatedmanuals.com) · Multiple GB for full collection; individual TMs 5-50 MB
47 CFR Part 97 — Amateur Radio Service Rules
The actual legal rules for amateur operation, including 97.403/97.405 emergency-communications provisions — authoritative companion to the question pools.
FCC via eCFR (ecfr.gov) · <1 MB
AFH 10-644 Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) Operations
The most comprehensive modern US military survival text (2017): arctic, desert, tropical, open-ocean survival, shelter, fire, food/water procurement, navigation, signaling. Deeper than ATP 3-50.21 and a differentiator vs. competitors who only ship FM 21-76.
US Air Force (e-Publishing) · Large — 652 illustrated pages (size not verified; expect 15-60 MB)
ATP 3-50.21 Survival
The current (Sept 2018) official Army survival doctrine — successor to FM 21-76/FM 3-05.70. Covers water, food, fire, shelter, signaling, and survival medicine. The flagship item for a survival-manual library. Also the strongest free source on food procurement — plants, fishing, trapping and snares — and on water sourcing and treatment, which is why it is shelved under Plants, Food & Water as well.
US Army (Army Publishing Directorate) · Not stated on APD page; typical ATP is 5-15 MB
ATP 3-90.97 Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Operations
Cold-weather and mountain operations doctrine: cold injury prevention, clothing layering (COLD principle), improvised shelters, movement over snow/ice, altitude effects. Fills the cold-climate pillar alongside AFH 10-644's arctic chapters.
US Army (Army Publishing Directorate) · ~5-15 MB
ATP 4-02.11 — Casualty Response, Tactical Combat Casualty Care, and First Aid
The current (released 23 Mar 2026) official Army first-aid doctrine for NONMEDICAL personnel — bleeding control, airway, burns, fractures, environmental injuries, casualty movement — written for laypeople-level responders and fully redistributable.
US Army Medical Center of Excellence / Army Publishing Directorate · ~10-20 MB
AUXFOG — Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide v1.1
Training and reference for volunteer/amateur emergency communicators (AuxComm): equipment, nets, message handling — bridges ham radio and official disaster response; CISA's own offline app validates the exact use case.
DHS CISA / Office of Emergency Communications · 3.4 MB (verified)
Camping and Woodcraft, Vols. I-II
The classic American woodcraft text: shelter building, axemanship, firecraft, camp cooking, wilderness travel. Adds heritage depth and 'bushcraft' appeal beyond military manuals.
Macmillan (public-domain scans via Internet Archive) · ~20-50 MB per volume as scans; much smaller as text/EPUB
CDC emergency-health web content
Authoritative, lay-readable coverage of exactly the dimension's topics: boil-water/bleach ratios, hypothermia, heat stroke, snakebite do's/don'ts, carbon monoxide after power outages, post-flood food safety.
CDC / ATSDR · A few MB for a curated fact-sheet pack
CDC MMWR mushroom-poisoning reports
Authoritative, citable basis for the 'why to be conservative' chapter: cooking does not destroy amatoxins, lookalikes fool experienced foragers, ID apps are unreliable, death cap causes most fatal poisonings. Also https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010a1.htm for national statistics.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · <1 MB each
CDC Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) emergency water guidance + fact sheets
Consumer-grade guidance on the 1 gal/person/day rule, container sanitizing, storage rotation, boiling/disinfecting/filtering decision tree — complements the EPA card and is bilingual.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · a few MB
Chain Saw and Crosscut Saw Training Course — Student's Guidebook
Authoritative chainsaw and crosscut saw safety, felling, bucking, limbing, and saw maintenance — the highest-risk common post-storm task, from the agency that trains wildland crews.
USDA Forest Service, Missoula Technology & Development Center · ~200 KB/chapter; full book a few MB
CPSC Safety Alert: Portable Generator Hazards (Pub. 5123) + CO 'Invisible Killer' toolkit
Consumer-grade CO and generator placement guidance with graphics, including Spanish-language versions — good for a bilingual safety section.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission · 220 KB (verified); toolkit a few MB
Dyke's Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia + Practical Blacksmithing
Genuinely PD deep-skill texts: forge work, welding at the anvil, wheelwrighting, early engine repair — fits the 'grid-down artisan skills' theme and is fully redistributable, including commercially.
Pre-1930 trade publishers; hosted by Internet Archive / Library of Congress / Project Gutenberg · 20-100 MB per scanned volume; Gutenberg EPUBs <5 MB
Emergency Childbirth — Medical Self-Help Training Course, Lesson No. 11
Clean-license, step-by-step unassisted-delivery instructions written for untrained laypeople in disasters — fills the childbirth gap that otherwise only restricted sources (Hesperian, WHO) cover.
US Office of Civil Defense (DoD) · <2 MB
Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water
The canonical boil/bleach-dose quick card (exact drops-per-quart tables) — ideal offline one-pager; pairs with CDC water pages.
US EPA · ~755 KB
Emergency War Surgery, 5th Edition
Definitive austere-environment trauma/surgery reference (damage control, mass casualty triage, burns, blast injury) for the 'worst case, no hospital' tier of a survival library.
Borden Institute, US Army Medical Center of Excellence · ~25-60 MB
FAA Digital VFR Raster Charts
Sectionals double as excellent large-area emergency planning maps (terrain, obstacles, airports as evacuation/medevac points). Public domain, zero cost, and popular with the prepper audience.
Federal Aviation Administration, Aeronautical Information Services · ~20-60 MB per sectional zip; full US sectional set a few GB
FDA Bad Bug Book, 2nd edition
Chapters on mushroom toxins (amatoxins etc.), pyrrolizidine alkaloids, cyanogenic glycosides, phytohaemagglutinin (raw kidney beans), solanine, shellfish toxins — the toxicology backbone for 'why to be conservative' messaging, each chapter with a plain-language consumer box.
US Food and Drug Administration, CFSAN · ~3-6 MB
FEMA B-526 Earthquake Safety Checklist
Current, compact earthquake before/during/after checklist — good offline quick-reference card.
FEMA · <5 MB
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer
Flood zones, base flood elevations, and floodways for pre-disaster planning — 'is my home/route in a flood zone' is a headline offline feature for a survival app, and flooding is the most common US disaster.
FEMA · National GDB ~12 GB uncompressed; county extracts typically 10-500 MB
FEMA P-2064 'Are You Ready? An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness'
FEMA's flagship all-hazards citizen preparedness manual (Sept 2020 edition): planning, kits, and hazard-by-hazard protective actions (flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, extreme heat/cold, nuclear/radiological). The natural backbone of an offline preparedness section.
FEMA / Ready.gov · ~10-20 MB
FEMA P-320 Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building or Installing a Safe Room for Your Home
Residential tornado/hurricane safe-room design guidance with buildable plans — serves the 'shelter' dimension for homeowners rather than wilderness shelter.
FEMA Building Science · ~10-30 MB
Field Guide to Common Macrofungi in Eastern Forests and Their Ecosystem Functions
The rare PUBLIC-DOMAIN mushroom guide with quality color photos (incl. deadly Amanita and Galerina species). Deliberately ecology-focused rather than an edibility guide — which fits the safety-first stance: show what grows, never promise edibility.
USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station · ~5-10 MB
FM 10-16 General Fabric Repair
The redistributable sewing manual: hand and machine stitches, seams, darns, patches, zippers/fasteners, canvas and webbing repair — directly applicable to repairing clothing, tents, packs, and tarps.
U.S. Department of the Army (hosted on Internet Archive) · ~40 MB (scan); smaller text versions available
FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual
The classic, illustration-rich edition civilians know as 'the Army Survival Manual' — better plant/trap/shelter illustrations than the terser 2018 ATP; strong marketing recognition. Alternate clean copy: https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM21-76(92).pdf
US Army (historical copy via Internet Archive) · ~20-35 MB scan
FM 3-05.70 Survival (2002) — Appendix B (Edible Plants) and Appendix C (Poisonous Plants) with color photos
This is the key redistributable ILLUSTRATED edible/poisonous plant reference: ~100 edible + ~50 poisonous plants with color photographs, habitat/distribution, edible parts, preparation. Commercial reprints of exactly this content are common (e.g., 'The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants'), confirming reuse is normal practice. Also mirrored at https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-70.pdf.
Headquarters, Department of the Army · ~30-60 MB
FM 3-34.471 Plumbing, Pipe Fitting, and Sewerage
Pipe repair, fixtures, water supply and waste systems with field methods — pairs with Carpentry for a redistributable home-systems repair set.
U.S. Department of the Army / USMC (mirror: constructionknowledge.net) · ~10 MB
FM 5-125 Rigging Techniques, Procedures, and Applications
The best public-domain knots/ropework reference: knots, hitches, splices, lashings, anchor systems, and tackle with clear line diagrams and safe-load rules of thumb. Anchors a 'knots and ropework' feature.
US Army (historical copy via Internet Archive) · ~5-10 MB
FM 5-426 Carpentry
Practical framing, layout, concrete forming, roof framing, and finish carpentry from scratch with hand tools — directly applicable to post-disaster repair and rebuilding.
U.S. Department of the Army (mirror: constructionknowledge.net; also archive.org/details/FM5-426) · 4.7 MB (verified)
Food and Water in an Emergency
Compact all-in-one booklet: food shelf lives, cooking without power, safe indoor water sources (water heater, pipes), unsafe sources, and the three treatment methods — a good single-download starter doc.
FEMA with the American Red Cross · <2 MB
GNIS Domestic Names
Millions of named natural features (springs, gaps, peaks, valleys) with coordinates — the backbone of offline place-name search/geocoding so users can find 'Cold Spring' with no connectivity. Springs and water features are survival-critical search targets.
USGS / US Board on Geographic Names · National names file on the order of ~100-300 MB uncompressed
HIFLD Open — Hurricane Evacuation Routes
The only national compilation of designated hurricane evacuation routes — an obvious offline layer for coastal subscribers.
DHS Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) · Small (tens of MB)
Homeowner's Guide to Going Solar + Solar Energy Resources for Consumers
Current, consumer-level solar PV guidance (system basics, batteries, resilience) directly from DOE, cleanly public domain per DOE's published copyright policy (verified 2026).
U.S. Department of Energy, Solar Energy Technologies Office (energy.gov) · <5 MB as text
HRSA Poison Help materials
The 1-800-222-1222 number and household poison do's/don'ts (no ipecac, when to rinse vs. call) are exactly what an offline quick card needs.
HRSA (HHS), Poison Control Program · <5 MB
Joint Trauma System Clinical Practice Guidelines
The Prolonged Casualty Care guideline is uniquely relevant to disasters (caring for casualties for hours-to-days when evacuation/hospitals are unavailable); burn, crush injury, and hypothermia CPGs also map directly to disaster scenarios.
Joint Trauma System, Defense Health Agency · ~100-300 MB for full set; 1-3 MB per CPG
Knots, Splices and Rope Work
Compact illustrated civilian knots primer — friendlier than a rigging FM for beginners; text format makes it easy to restyle into app-native pages.
Project Gutenberg (eBook #13510) · <5 MB
MedlinePlus health topic summaries
Thousands of lay-language, physician-reviewed topic summaries in English and Spanish, bulk-downloadable — instant breadth for an offline health encyclopedia (anaphylaxis, burns, dehydration, wound care, etc.).
National Library of Medicine, NIH · ~50-150 MB for full health-topic XML set
National Park Service park maps
The iconic, professionally designed park brochure maps every visitor recognizes, plus authoritative trail/boundary GIS for the exact places subscribers will be when lost. NPS confirms government-produced maps may be reproduced, modified, and redistributed without restriction.
US National Park Service · ~1-30 MB per park map PDF; full set a few GB
NCVEC Amateur Radio Exam Question Pools
Enables a built-in offline ham-license study/practice-exam feature — a major differentiator; commercial exam apps already rely on the same PD pools.
NCVEC Question Pool Committee (ncvec.org) · ~0.5 MB per pool (Technician PDF verified 477 KB)
NEETS — Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series
The standard public-domain electricity/electronics curriculum: DC/AC basics, wiring techniques, circuit protection, batteries, generators, motors, antennas/wave propagation, radio — underpins both the electrical-repair and ham-radio content areas.
U.S. Navy / NETPDTC (hosted on Internet Archive, marked Public Domain) · ~100-200 MB for all 24 modules
NIFOG — National Interoperability Field Operations Guide v2.02
THE disaster-communications reference: nationwide interoperability channels, frequency tables, standard channel names, rules for emergency use — precisely the thing people need offline when infrastructure is down.
DHS CISA (SAFECOM) · 6.7 MB (verified)
NIOSH Cold Stress and Heat Stress fast facts
Compact, illustration-ready hypothermia/frostbite/trench foot and heat-stroke recognition & first aid — good building blocks for in-app quick-reference cards.
NIOSH / CDC · <5 MB
NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts
Full US coastal/Great Lakes/intracoastal coverage — depths, hazards, anchorages — valuable for coastal-evacuation and boating-survival scenarios, and remarkably small to bundle.
NOAA Office of Coast Survey · Complete 'All ENCs' package ~794 MB
Nuclear Detonation Response Guidance: Planning for the First 72 Hours
Shorter, more operational companion to the 3rd-edition planning guide; good source for distilled 72-hour checklists.
FEMA Office of Emerging Threats · ~5-10 MB
NWS weather safety brochures
Definitive severe-weather protective-action guidance (tornado sheltering, lightning 30-30 rule, flood 'Turn Around Don't Drown', heat index, wind chill). Short, visual, ideal for offline cards.
NOAA National Weather Service · 1-15 MB each
NWS weather safety flyers — Español
Guía de seguridad del NWS en español: inundaciones, calor extremo, huracanes, incendios forestales, tormentas invernales y tornados — protective-action guidance in Spanish, compiled as one offline pack.
NOAA National Weather Service · 1-5 MB each
OSHA Fact Sheet: Using Portable Generators Safely
Concise, life-safety-critical CO/electrocution/backfeed rules for running a generator after an outage — small file, huge value, zero license risk.
U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA · <1 MB
Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation, 3rd Edition
Authoritative guidance on surviving the first 24-72 hours after a nuclear detonation — shelter zones, fallout timing, get-inside/stay-inside/stay-tuned. High-anxiety topic with almost no reputable free competition; strong differentiator.
FEMA (with interagency partners) · ~10-15 MB (mirror at https://remm.hhs.gov/PlanningGuidanceNuclearDetonation.pdf)
Plants Poisonous to Livestock in the Western States
Illustrated federal reference covering the major toxic range plants (larkspur, locoweed, lupine, hemlocks, death camas, nightshades...): identification photos, toxic principle, signs of poisoning, and management. Serves both the poisonous-plant and livestock-basics briefs with a clean license and redistributable IMAGES.
USDA Agricultural Research Service, Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory (Logan, UT) · ~5-15 MB
Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country
The best consumer earthquake-preparedness handbook — science, home hazard hunt, Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety.
US Geological Survey · 5.8 MB (GIP-15); ~10-20 MB (GIP-119)
Ready.gov Hazard Information Sheets
Concise, current (2023-2025) 2-page sheets for ~19 hazards: earthquake, extreme heat, flood, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, volcano, wildfire, winter storm, avalanche, landslide, power outage, thunderstorm/lightning/hail, etc. Perfect mobile-sized offline reference cards; multilingual versions are a subscription selling point.
FEMA Ready Campaign · ~10-25 MB for the full suite
Residential Rehabilitation Inspection Guide
Step-by-step evaluation of a house's site, exterior, structure, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC — exactly what someone assessing storm/earthquake damage needs offline.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD USER) · ~5-10 MB total
ST 31-91B — US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook
Legendary in the prepper market (strong SEO/conversion draw); covers improvised care, dental, veterinary, obstetrics in austere settings.
US Army Institute for Military Assistance · ~16-20 MB
Studies of American Fungi: Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc.
Classic illustrated mushroom monograph with period photographs — atmospheric library content and historical plates, free to bundle.
Project Gutenberg (orig. Andrus & Church, 1900) · ~10-30 MB with images
Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World / Notes on Edible Plants
Encyclopedic coverage of ~3,000 edible species worldwide (uses, history, parts eaten) — deep 'library shelf' content that differentiates a paid product, at zero licensing cost.
New York Agricultural Experiment Station (1919; public-domain scan on Internet Archive) · ~30-60 MB scan
TC 3-25.26 Map Reading and Land Navigation
The standard land-navigation text: topo map reading, compass use, terrain association, dead reckoning, navigation without instruments, plus an orienteering appendix. Exactly what an offline user without GPS needs.
US Army (Army Publishing Directorate) · ~15-25 MB (map-graphic heavy)
TC 4-02.1 First Aid
The long-standing Army first aid manual widely mirrored in prepper communities; simpler than ATP 4-02.11 in places.
US Army / Army Publishing Directorate · ~5-10 MB
TC 9-237 Operator's Circular: Welding Theory and Application
Complete welding textbook: safety, joint design, arc/oxy-fuel processes, metal identification, electrodes, field-expedient maintenance welding — the definitive redistributable welding reference.
U.S. Department of the Army (official armypubs.army.mil copy) · 14.4 MB (verified via HTTP header)
TCCC
The gold-standard evidence-based prehospital trauma protocol (MARCH: massive hemorrhage, airway, respiration, circulation, hypothermia) — the basis of civilian Stop the Bleed. Index page: https://jts.health.mil/index.cfm/committees/cotccc/guidelines
Committee on TCCC / Joint Trauma System / Defense Health Agency · ~1-5 MB
TM 5-685 / NAVFAC MO-912 Operation, Maintenance and Repair of Auxiliary Generators
Deep coverage of generator sets: prime movers, generators, switchgear, routine maintenance and troubleshooting — the redistributable counterpart to owner's manuals users won't have offline.
U.S. Army / U.S. Navy (mirror: everyspec.com) · ~5-10 MB
TM 9-8000 Principles of Automotive Vehicles
38 illustrated chapters on how vehicles work and are repaired: gasoline/diesel engines, fuel, cooling, electrical/batteries/charging/starting/ignition, brakes, drivetrains — the best legally redistributable general auto-repair text (Chilton/Haynes are not redistributable).
U.S. Department of the Army (mirror: liberatedmanuals.com) · ~17 MB
United States Frequency Allocation Chart
Visual overview of the entire US radio spectrum — good companion graphic for the comms section and scanner users.
NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce · 274 KB (verified)
US Census TIGER/Line Shapefiles
The only comprehensive fully-public-domain US road network. Strategic value: a zero-ODbL fallback stack (TIGER roads + GNIS names + US Topo + 3DEP) exists if legal ever vetoes OSM share-alike exposure. Also the road source USGS itself switched to for US Topo in 2016.
US Census Bureau · All-county national roads ~6-8 GB of shapefiles
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
THE authoritative, safety-tested home canning reference (pressure vs water-bath, altitude adjustments, hundreds of tested recipes for fruits, tomatoes, vegetables, meats, pickles, jams). Exactly the offline reference preppers want, and as a numbered USDA bulletin it is public domain.
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (with UGA/NCHFP) · ~15-40 MB total
USFS FSTopo
Often fresher and more trail-accurate than US Topo inside national forests (the Forest Service's own primary base map series, with FS road numbers critical for rescue callouts). National forests are where a large share of survival scenarios actually happen.
USDA Forest Service · ~10-30 MB per quad; covers all 193 million acres of NFS land
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection via topoView
1884-2006 scans at 1:24k-1:250k. Older quads often show springs, cabins, mine shafts, and trails dropped from modern maps — genuinely useful survival detail — and make a differentiating 'historic layer'.
U.S. Geological Survey (NGMDB) · 178,000+ maps; ~10-50 MB each depending on format
USGS US Topo Quadrangle Maps
The canonical US backcountry map. 1:24,000 topo quads with contours, water, trails, and structures — exactly what a survival app's offline map library should anchor on. USGS explicitly confirms bulk redistribution and commercial reuse (see usgs.gov/faqs/are-usgs-topographic-maps-copyrighted and the bulk-order FAQ); The National Map Downloader exports a CSV product list for scripted bulk fetches of state-size areas.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) · ~15-60 MB per 7.5-minute quad; ~1,000-1,500 quads per state (roughly 30-75 GB/state); full current CONUS set is in the low terabytes
Virginia Cooperative Extension emergency-preparedness publication series
Rare extension system with a blanket reuse-with-credit policy. Practical household topics federal pubs cover thinly: emergency water supplies, document checklists, child and pet preparedness, first-aid kit contents.
Virginia Cooperative Extension (Virginia Tech / Virginia State University) · <2 MB each