Library Vendor-provided Ebooks:
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ebrary
Ebsco Ebooks (formerly NetLibrary)
Literati Academic Access
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Freely Accessible Book Collections
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The collections listed here contain freely accessible to anyone with internet access. They include the full-text, cover-to-cover, of print books. Most of them are in the public domain, meaning no one holds a copyright on them. Some sites will allow you to download the entire book. Others will only allow viewing or printing. For assistance with citing electronic books in your paper, view the library's Citations & Writing Help Page.
Project Gutenberg
- Web site: http://www.gutenberg.org
- Free archive of over 32,000 full text, public domain, books
- All of the books are available as downloadable plain text HTML files
- The site also includes audiobooks that are downloadable
Internet Archive
- Web site: http://archive.org
- The site's Open Access Text Archive contains texts that are either in the public domain or uploaded under a Creative Content license
- Contains over 100,000 texts, audio files, maps, video, and more
- Provides permanent access to historical collections in digital format.
- Many texts are available in downloadable format such as plain text, html, PDF, or Flip Book
The Online Books Page
- Web site: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
- Indexed listing of over 30,000 free e-books on the web by the University of Pennsylvania
- Allows searching by Library of Congress call number, or subject browsing
- The collection includes fiction and non-fiction
Google Book Search
- Web site: http://books.google.com
- Each book includes a brief amount of information for the searcher, such as title and author
- When searching for books, choose "Full View Books". This option will return only books for which you will have access
- Full View Books are books that are out of copyright or otherwise authorized to be completely accessible
- Limited Preview Books will include an authorized excerpt of the book
The Internet Public Library: Online Texts
Feedbooks
- Web page: http://www.feedbooks.com
- Feedbooks is a free service which provides downloadable books for mobile devices, e-paper devices, and computers
- It provides ebooks in a number of formats, including plain text: ePub - Mobipocket/Kindle - PDF - Sony Reader - iLiad - Custom PDF
- The books are public domain books and free from copyright restrictions
- They include fiction and nonfiction titles
Manybooks
- Web page: http://manybooks.net
- Manybooks is a free services which provides downloadable books for mobile devices, e-paper devices, and computers
- It provides ebooks in a number of formats, including PDF, ereader, Plucker, Palm Doc, Kindle, Mobipocket, ePub, and others
- The books are public domain books and free from copyright restrictions
- They include fiction and nonfiction titles
Bartleby: Great Books Online
- Web site: http://www.bartleby.com
- Free archive of classic literature
- Extensive collection of poetry, prose, drama, nonfiction, dictionaries, quotations, thesauri and reference books
- Individual entries of books can be viewed and printed for free
- Individual entries also include bibliographic citation information
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin
- Web site: http://darwin-online.org.uk
- Free archive of all published and non-published works by Darwin
- Claims to be the largest free collection of works by and about Darwin
- Contains over 50,000 searchable pages of text
- Site includes downloadable mp3 files of Darwin's works
- Individual publications and books are printable, but not for download
The Internet Classics Archive
- Web site: http://classics.mit.edu/
- Both well-known and lesser known works of Greek and Roman literature
- Many are downloadable plain text or html. A few are links to other hosted locations
- Provides a link to similar collections held by other institutions
The Online Medieval & Classical Library
- Web page: http://omacl.org
- A collection of literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization
- Works are in plain HTML format
OpenLibrary
- Web page: http://openlibrary.org
- Wants to have one web page for every book published
- Includes millions of book records
- Includes full text component of copyright-free books
- Downloadable books in pdf, html, epub, kindle, daisy, mobi
Free Tech Books
- Web site: http://www.freetechbooks.com
- Free programming, computer science, engineering, electronic books and lecture notes
- Allows free viewing, downloading, and/or printing of all but a few titles
- The site also includes free magazine and newsletter subscriptions in a wide variety of tech-related fields
University of Minnesota Open Textbook Catalog
- Web site: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/
- Students can access free digital versions or purchase low-cost print copies of open textbooks (Univ. of Minnesota students)
- Books are downloadable in Adobe PDF format, or read online
- Instructors can customize open textbooks to fit their course needs by remixing, editing, and adding their own content.
- Subjects include a variety in all academic fields
