Open Access e-Books

Miscellaneous Books - Best Free Digital Libraries - Other Free Australian Books

 

Miscellaneous Books

 

1 - Adelaide University Electronic Texts Collection

 
This growing collection of e-texts - currently more than 700 - includes classic works of Literature, Philosophy, Science, and Medicine.
 

2 - ANU E-Print Repository

 
From the Australian National University in Canberra, ACT (Australian Capital Territory). Holding over 2,460 items as of May 2005. Material from 1987 on is included. User registration (there is no charge) is required for some parts of the site.Subject Categories included: Arts, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biological Sciences, Business and Economics, Chemistry, Electronic Publishing, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Physical Sciences & Mathematics and Social Sciences.
 
3 - Australian e-Humanities Gateway
 
Australian e-Humanities Gateway is an initiative of the Australian e-Humanities Network, a group funded by the Australian Research Council. The network includes representatives from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle. A portal for digital resources in humanities disciplines in Australia.
 
4 - Curtin University of Technology
 

Curtin University of Technology Institutional Repository espace@Curtin provides access to research produced by Curtin University of Technology staff and postgraduate students. Around 260 items were available as at May 2005 covering material from 1980 onwards.

Subject Listings

 

5 - ePrints Queensland University of Technology

An institutional archive of research papers produced at Queensland University of Technology by QUT staff and postgraduate students. Items now deposited span from 1984 to date, and this fast-growing new collection already offers no less than 967 of them (in May 2005).

 

6 - eprints University of Melbourne

The embryonic University of Melbourne eprint collection. The oldest item dates back to 1945. In order to access some areas of the archive, you'll need a user registration (no charge).

 

7 - eprints @ University of Queensland

The University of Queensland's Digital Repository. Covers material created since 1983, although most dates from 1998 on. Includes e-books, e-chapters, online journals, various articles, working papers, conference papers and proceedings, posters, miscellaneous research output, and pre-publication (draft) material. OAI-compliant, the repository includes research output of UQ academic staff and postgraduate students, both before and after peer-reviewed publication. Formats used are HTML, ASCII text, PDF & Postscript.

 

8 - Monash University ePrint Repository

The Monash University ePrint Repository showcases and archives quality research output of Monash University staff. As of May 2005 it held 122 e-prints covering the period 1996-2004.

 

9 - Project Gutenberg of Australia

Project Gutenberg of Australia produces books in electronic form and makes them freely available to the public in accordance with Australian copyright law. NB: Under Australian copyright law, literary, dramatic, & musical work published, performed, communicated, or recorded and offered for sale in an author's lifetime are protected for the life of the author plus fifty years from the end of the year of the author's death. After this time they enter into the public domain. Some e-books available here may still be under copyright in the United States (where local laws have several times extended copyright to levels not accepted within Australian jurisdiction). Such works are therefore not available from the US site of Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg is the original free digital library of books no longer in copyright. So you'll find a great many classic literary texts here. The full Gutenberg collection now exceeds 5,000 books. The whole collection represents a monumental effort in unpaid, unselfish, labour since 1971.

 

10 - SETIS

The Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service at the University of Sydney Library. Regarded as the leading University digital collection in Australia. Includes also the University of Sydney digital theses collection (currently around two hundred theses available). NB: While you may access many texts from the Web, a large number are commercially licensed and available only to users at the University of Sydney.

 

11 - UTasER

The University of Tasmania ePrint Repository. Research materials covering as far back as 1968 have now been deposited here. By May 2005 there were 126 of them.

 
 
Best Free Digital Libraries
 

1 - Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts is a collection of public domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western philosophy. You can search for and display texts from the collection & also search their content, & even create on-the-fly PDFs for offline reading or printing.

 

2 - arXiv e-Prints

Includes e-Print "preprints" in Physics, Mathematics, Nonlinear Sciences, and Computer sciences. From Cornell University with assistance from the National Science Foundation (USA), the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (USA) and the University of Adelaide (Australia).

 

3 - Athena

Thousands of mainly French and Swiss-authored e-texts, across a broad range of especially Literature, Science & the Arts. In .html &. rtf versions. Also many links to famous works in German, Dutch & English too. Prepared or linked for the Web by the University of Geneva. Expand your mind & education here.

 

4 - Bartleby

The Encyclopedia of World History and The Harvard Classics are among many free texts offered at this award-winning site. Many classic reference works are available here.

 

5 - Bibliomania

Bibliomania Offers more than 2,000 free classic texts, plus research works. In HTML format, readable by your web browser.

 

6 - Bibliotheca Augustana

Augustana A Latin e-library. Includes Bibliothecae Latina, Graeca, Germanica, Anglica, Gallica, Italica, Hispanica, Polonica et Russica. "Collectio textuum electronicorum. AppleMac et Netscape his paginis optimum visum dant. Ave Gatem et Exploratorem! " (Optimised for Netscape).

 

7 - CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts)

Irish literary, historical & cultural texts, in Irish, Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and English. Presented in HTML, with a searchable online database. An initiative of University College, Cork, Republic of Ireland.

 

8 - CogPrints

Cognitive Sciences Eprint* Archive - Includes a wide variety of papers in psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, biology, medicine, anthropology and computer science. Material dates back as far as 1950, although most of it dates since 1990. Some areas of the archive require registration, to obtain a username and password.

*Eprints here are defined as the digital texts of peer-reviewed research articles, before and after refereeing. Before refereeing and publication, the draft is called a "preprint." The refereed, published final draft is called a "postprint." Eprints may include both preprints and postprints, as well as any significant drafts in between, and any post publication updates.

 

9 - The Digital Library of the Commons (DLC)

An archive of international literature on "the commons" (i.e. that which is held in common or by a community). Many useful features for both readers and contributing authors. A full-text Digital Library, a Working Paper Archive of author-submitted papers, and links to relevant references are included. Thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP) & the Indiana University Graduate School. As Adobe PDF files.

 

10 - Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE)

DLESE Over 5,000 searchable educational resources. Items are also organized into themes or collections, broadly as environmental, geographical, geological, oceanographical and other physical sciences; space science and technology; policy and educational issues and the philosophy of science. Resources are not archived on site but in a variety of collaborating collections. Funded by the National Science Foundation (USA).

 

11 - Digital Library of Information Science and Technology (dLIST)

A repository of electronic resources in Library and Information Science (LIS) and Information Technology (IT). Contains published and unpublished papers, data sets instructional and help materials, pathfinder , reports & bibliographies. So far in English only. User registration required to access some areas in HTML or PDF.

 

12 - Elfwood

Elfwood is a huge, non-profit home to amateur Fantasy/Sci-Fi literature and art, plus some How -To Guides. The site holds over twenty thousand works of art & literature by over fifteen hundred Science Fiction/Fantasy artists and writers.

 

13 - The E Server

Bit of a mind flip might be an exaggeration, but there is certainly nothing stodgy about this large & contemporary collection of online intellectual texts & resources. Based at the University of Washington.

 

14 - Electronic Text Collections in Western European Literature

Links site for literary texts in Western European languages other than English. Languages include Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish & Swedish.

 

15 - Electronic Texts On The Internet

A useful links page with over eighty entries.

 

16 - EuroDocs

Primary historical documents from Western Europe. Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations.

 

17 - Great Books Index

From Aeschylus to Virginia Woolf - links to online works, in English translation, by more than 130 classic authors. Please check for any copyright restrictions (which may in a few cases apply for other than reading online). A redoubtable effort from Ken Roberts of Ontario, Canada.

 

18 - Great Books and Classics

Provides free HTML online versions of many famous authors from before 200 BC to the 20th Century. Linked with Amazon.com for commercial print offerings of the titles.

 

19 - Internet Classics Archive

More than 440 mainly Greco-Roman texts, with some Chinese and Persian. By 59 different authors. In English translation. For online reading, some downloads available.

 

20 - Internet Public Library

Over 20,000 free books available online. The Internet Public Library's Mission Statement says: " The Internet Public Library (IPL), is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment at the University of Michigan School of Information. The IPL Online Texts Collection contains over 20,000 titles that can be browsed by author, by title, or by Dewey Decimal Classification". For questions about the online texts collection, or how to search, please see their help page.

 

21 - MIT OpenCourseWare

The first stage of an ambitious & generous plan to make all Massachusetts Institute of Technology course materials available on the Internet, for free download. Materials for 500 courses have been accessible since the end of September 2003. Materials are in English, but a number are also available in Spanish & Portuguese. Presented in HTML. However courses may include Adobe Acrobat PDF files, Java Applets, Shockwave, Real Player, Java, and MATLAB files (software for all of these may be downloaded from the site's Technical Requirements page). This so far unique gift is made possible by MIT with support from the William and Flora Hewlett & Andrew W. Mellon Foundations.

Course List.....

 

22 - National Academy Press

Read over 2,500 National Academy science, engineering, and health texts free online. You can also purchase print copies if you wish. These e-books represent the cream of U.S. research & policy opinion in these fields. Texts are presented in a fully-searchable "Open Book" format, which also allows for page browsing & internal links. Open Book" is HTML, & moreover the format is prepared so that you can send people an individual page reference as an URL. PDFs are also available. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences provides this site.

 

23 - Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)

Links to digital theses/dissertations available in Australia, Canada, many European nations, Hong Kong, Taiwan & the USA.

 

24 - New Zealand Digital Library

Collections available include historical documents, humanitarian and development information, computer science technical reports and bibliographies, literary works, and magazines. A project of the University of Waikato, variously in HTML and PDF.

 

25 - Online Books Page

This University of Pennsylvania site offers access to more than 16,000 books online.

 

26 - Online Medieval and Classical Library

From The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Yvain, or The Knight With the Lion, & including such works as: The Lay of the Cid, The Song of Roland, the Nibelungenlied, Orlando Furioso, the High History of the Holy Graal, many Icelandic sagas, some Chaucer & much else besides. In HTML for reading online, or download in PKZIP v.2.04g compressed format. Thanks to Douglas B. Killings, Sun Systems & the University of California at Berkeley.

 

27 - Oxford Text Archive

From Oxford University, this archive was founded in 1976. High-quality, well-documented electronic texts for research and teaching. More than 2,500 resources in over 25 different languages. A premium academic resource. Public domain texts are freely available from the on-line catalogue and may be downloaded in a number of different formats. Some texts require the user to obtain the written permission of the original depositor.

 

28 - Pennsylvania State University Electronic Classics Site

"The Labyrinth" PSU's e-books are presented as .pdf files (Adobe's Portable Document Format). Read them with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Established in 1997, the site offers many classical works of literature in English, plus original works published by Penn. State Uni.

 

29 - Perseus Project

A great classical digital library site, with Greek & Latin texts, commentaries, an atlas, coin images, art, archaeology and more.

 

30 - Project Libellus

The University of Washington, Seattle, provides this library of Latin texts, readable in your web browser. In HTML & TeX (a subset of ASCII). Thirteen classical Latin authors represented.

 

31 - Project Madurai

Tamil Digital Library under preparation by voluntary effort. So far 160 works in Tamil script are available, in TSCII (Tamil Script Code for Information Interchange) format. Old Tamil classic works predominate so far.

 

32 - Project Runeberg

Project Runeberg publishes free electronic editions of old Nordic literature on the Internet. Since 1992. More than 200 titles, mostly in Swedish.

 

33 - SAIL-eprints

Find scientific or technical documents, published or unpublished, in Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Materials Sciences, Nanotechnologies, Microelectronics, Computer Sciences, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Earth Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography Agriculture and related application activities. SAIL enables searching over 70 institutional open access archives around the world. NB: Downloading of e-documents is possible only if it is permitted on the original archive.

 

34 - Soil And Health Library

Free public library offering books on holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficient living, and personal development.

 

35 - Universal Library (under development)

"The principal benefit of the Universal Library will be to supplement the formal education system by making knowledge available to anyone who can read and has access." A project of Carnegie Mellon University & the governments of China & India - much of the scanning will be done in the latter two countries. The million books project will have considerable content in many Indian and Chinese languages, as well as English.

 

36 - University of Virginia Electronic Text Center

Has more than 10,000 publicly accessible texts in thirteen languages (& over 164,000 publicly available images). These texts are available to web browsers, but in addition there are 2,000 + e-books available (in English) for MS Reader & Palm Reader.

 

37 - Virtual Library

"The Virtual Library is the oldest catalog of the web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of html and the Web itself. Unlike commercial catalogs, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert…" Fourteen primary categories to check out, or use the search engine.

 

38 - William Shakespeare

Complete Works of William Shakespeare but minus his poetry at present. The plays can be read either as a continuous text or by individual scenes. For reading online, in HTML.

 

39 - World eBook Library

Opportunities to read or download thousands of HTML books online. Provides free, unlimited public access to a comprehensive collection of public domain texts & references, and links to thousand of on-line libraries around the world via the World Wide Web and/or Telnet. For a small annual fee, also offers access to over 60,000 PDF e-books and e-documents, plus 7,000 mp3 audio books. From the World Electronic Text Library Foundation, based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

 
 
Other Free Australian Books
 

1 - Australian Institute of Marine Science Reference library

This collection may be read in either HTML and/or PDF.

 

2 - Desert Wave Publishing

Desert Wave Publishing Based in the Alice (Alice Springs, Northern Territory of Australia for our overseas readers). Provides a number of free PDF e-books in areas such as job search, training, online learning, how to e-publish yourself.

 
 
Other Free Books
 

1 - Abacci eBooks

Over a thousand free e-books for the Pocket PC & the PC (LIT files formatted for Microsoft Reader). Includes Amazon.com reviews. A selection of both classic & lesser-known works, thanks to site owner Peter Shanks, who personally formatted many. Titles

 

2 - Baen Free Library

Commercial bookstore offers free e-books in HTML Ms Reader, Palm, Rocket & RTF formats. Registration requested.

 

3 - Bookrags

1,500 classic titles available, for Palm or other handheld devices.

 

4 - Dr Jack Cross's Electronic Archive

A collection of Dr Jack Cross's writings, plus major historical works deposited with the Bodleian Library. Many are PDFs. Under "Fragments of our Lives: Primary Sources" includes many of the seminal historical source documents of the modern Western world, from Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad, & The History of Herodotus toThe Anglo Saxon Chronicle and key works by Dante, Milton, Goethe, Darwin and many more.

 

5 - Elegant Solutions Software & Publishing Company

Elegant Solutions Software & Publishing Company have a great free e- book site, with books downloadable to your PC: Motto:" Ebooks for people who think". Don't forget to check out Kate's page or the children's page there, for wonderful classic tales for young & old. Titles

(Download Microsoft Reader from "Useful Links" to read books from this site)

 

6 - Free Online Novels and Cyberbooks

Nearly fifty new novels ranging over many genres, including SF/Fantasy, mystery, romance, humour and lots more. A gift from new authors seeking your attention. Either as HTML or as downloadable files.

 

7 - InTechOpen!

InTechOpen is a fast-growing Open Access reading platform for InTech publications, enabling free access to the latest research developments within the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine. Read, download & share more than 420 FREE SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

 

8 - Literature @ SunSITE

Collection of digital literary texts from famous, mostly U.S.authors. May be read online, printed, or downloaded for further study.

 

9 - Litrix Reading Room

Features works of literature in English, including classics, mystery, horror, sci-fi, westerns, Sherlock Holmes, Americana. In HTML. For reading online, or save each chapter to read offline in your web browser. Thanks to novelist Stan Jones of Anchorage, Alaska.

 

10 - Lysator Free e-books

Lysator is a lively academic computer society & major e-publishing stalwart located at Linköping University in Sweden. Here are a few miscellaneous e-texts they offer.

 

11 - ManyBooks

Free PDA e-books. Many thousands of public domain e-books from Project Gutenberg and elsewhere. They're available here either to read online in plain text or formatted to download for the Adobe Reader, Palm eReader, Palm Doc, iSilo, Rocketbook and other r-reader softwares.

 

12 - Mary Jo's E-texts for the Palm

Her selections include the Oz Books, a number of classics in literature, & various fan fiction. All files are zipped for easy downloading.

 

13 - Memoware

Memoware have lots of free documents in a multiplicity of categories and a variety of formats for Palms & other PDAs. Award-winning site.

 

14 - MS (Microsoft) Reader (.lit) e- books

Over 1,500 available. You may search the listings by "author", "title" & "most popular" headings.

 

15 - Munsey's

A goodly range of free e-books! Over 20,000 rare and hard to find titles in 10 formats.

 

16 - PalmPilot E-Text Ring

80+ sites featuring free or for-purchase texts formatted for Palm readers.

 

17 - PDA Librarian

Jill Thompson of Greencastle-Antrim High School in Pennsylvania's site. Jill offers small but carefully-chosen selections in the following categories: Outstanding Books for the College Bound; Best Novels Written in the English Language; Downloads Available by Author; Great Books For Teens; Political Documents. Also Educational Uses For PDAs, plus other helpful information.

 

18 - Planet PDF Free eBooks area

Recent asset for popular classic novels in the PDF format.

 

19 - Qvadis Library

Qvadis Library offers nearly 6,000 e-text titles in 32 categories, all free. All formatted for Palm OS devices.

 

20 - Read Print

A great selection of free classic novels, stories, plays and non-fiction available online from over ninety authors. Browse the author list for your favourites.

 

21 - Scorpius Digital Publishing

Scorpius Digital Publishing have many free e-books available. Only avaialble for reading in Microsoft Reader. (Download Microsoft Reader from "Useful Links" to read books from this site)

 

22 - StoneGarden Net Publishing

Free or inexpensive e-books in both fiction and nonfiction. In Microsoft Reader and Adobe PDF formats. Registration (free) with this site is required.Free or inexpensive e-books in both fiction and nonfiction. In Microsoft Reader and Adobe PDF formats. Registration (free) with this site is required.

 

23 - Tale Wins

Tale Wins Marleen Roberts' site for authors & readers.

 

24 - Webooks.com eLibrary

A Links to over 2,200 free e-books in html, for reading online. In 16 broad categories (Business, Classics, Computers/Internet, Engineering, Entertainment, Life Sciences, Humanities, Gen. Science, Medicine, Society, Phys. Sci/Math and Teens and Kids) also includes journals & magazines.

 

25 - WORD IQ

IQ Over ten thousand online e-books, in plain text. Available in order of popularity or search for title.

 
 

Individual Topics/Miscellaneous

 

1 - Alchemy e-books

The text is plain, but an amazing array of illustrations on this unusual site more than compensate. Most works are in English, but six other languages are also represented. A huge site, from alchemy authority Adam McLean.

 

2 - American Indian tales - Coyote Stories/Poems

Native American stories from the American Indian Heritage Foundation, online in HTML.

 

3 - British Women Romantic Poets

Project E-text editions of poetry by British and Irish women written (not necessarily published) between 1789 and 1832, a period traditionally known in English literary history as the Romantic period. A digital initiative of the University of California, Davis, from the Shields Library. Available in HTML & SGML.

 

4 - Chemistry

This useful site from Alexander Ragoisha of Byelorussia offers free Full-Text Journals in Chemistry. Most are English language, with a section in Russian. Usually in HTML and/or PDF.

 

5 - Children's/Young Adult Books

A variety of famous classic titles.

 

6 - Children's Books Online: the Rosetta Project

Children's illustrated literature. Hundreds of children's books online. Because of the high picture content each page is presented as a separate image file (jpeg), or the whole book may be downloaded as a compressed (zip) file to read offline. In English, with some translated variously into Chinese, Farsi, Finnish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Maori, Polish, Romanian or Swedish.

 

7 - Comics

 
  • Free daily comic strips with back archives. Related goodies for sale. They have Ginger Meggs! Comics
  • Lots of e-freebies from DC.
 
8 - Computing
 
  • Free Computer and Scientific books online. Over 480 full-text computer & internet books (some titles offer excerpts only). The front webpage shows new or updated titles, while the rest may be accessed alphabetically or by searching the database. You may also buy a paperback edition. In HTML for online reading, access one chapter at a time.
  • Betabooks. Allows computing professionals to view partial and sometimes complete text versions of selected emerging technology titles online. Bet@Books viewing is free, & invites comments and feedback.
  • Free Windows Security e-books. Surprisingly, these individual chapters or entire books are dowloadable in .pdf format. You need to register to access them.
  • Realtime Publishers offer some valuable free Windows titles in Microsoft .lit or Adobe PDF formats. ("Real-time publishing" is the concept of posting a book as chapters/volumes are written, making up-to-the minute information available. You need to register to read the books - registered users will be notified via email when new chapters/volumes are added or existing content modified. Series include The Definitive Guides (for technical professionals), The Shortcut Guides (for the busy administrator and developer), and The Savvy Consumer Guides for consumers.
 

9 - Cooking

 
  • The USENET Cookbook. Main dishes, appetizers & snacks, bread/pasta, beverages, cookies or cakes, sauces, salads, soups, deserts, vegetable dishes etc. Vegetarian alternatives offered. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage. Copying is by permission of the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor. {Copyright (c) 1987 USENET Community Trust}.
  • e-Cookbooks.net. Some 18 free samples are available from this commercial site, as pdfs for Adobe Acrobat Reader.
 

10 - Current Affairs

From prolific writer Shmuel (Sam) Vaknin: lively, controversial musings on issues in economics, politics, the Balkans, international affairs, history, psychology and more. Download as MS Word, RTF (Rich Text Format) or PDF files.

 

11 - E-book publishing

This fledgling e-publisher/bookstore also offers some free inspirational/New Age titles, free covers for e-authors & a free e-book on drawing.

 

12 - Economics

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) "groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy", and does extensive economic and social research. You can get some summary information from OECD publications free here

 

13 - Electronics ee.com

A free technical library and professional community for electrical and electronics engineers. Contains over 5,600 documents in a variety of forms. Qualified contributions welcome. Resource areas include aerospace, analogue and digital design, biomedical technology, computer engineering, consumer electronics, digital signal processing, dsp, electric power, microprocessors, nanotechnology, magnetic & electro physics, jobs, meeting, business, research and development, semiconductors, telecommunication, vlsi.

 

14 - English language reference

 

Over 320,000 references & still growing, with both US and British spellings. On this minimalist (no frills) website you can look up words alphabetically or by search.

 

Prepared by a Scot who has spent some time in the USA, this fine work helps puzzled English speaking people understand American expressions better .

 

The Online Etymology Dictionary. In HTML. This valuable, attractively presented resource is from historian and author Douglas Harper.

 

15 - English literature and Classics

 

Over one thousand titles online in plain text, also versions for PC/Mac or for Palm, Visor & PocketPC.

 

A collection of classic books, plays, stories and poems for online reading. Nearly seventy
authors are represented.

 

A select catalogue of free original and classic fiction. Available for download in MS Reader, Adobe Reader ( PDF), or to read online in your Web browser (in their Virtual Imprint WebBook format - a simple but bookmarkable double page layout. IE 5+ recommended). Their home page also offers an array of purchasable services for bibliophiles.

 

A number of famous Irish literary works available free to download as text or RTF files, also some HTML short stories to read online. Yes, all of the following famous "English" authors were actually Irish - George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), Jonathan Swift, J.M.Synge, Oscar Wilde.

 

Fiction and philosophy as novel, short story or poetry, plus the author's autobiography. Three books available for online reading; downloads are as zipped plain text files.

 

More than a thousand scholars have contributed to this huge Web reference work, focused on literature in English. With nearly three thousand entries, and well over 5million words, there's any amount to learn here about writers, literary works and literary topics, and numerous links to more. And they throw in a bit of a Books-in-print too!

 

16 - General Reference

 

Provides a free encyclopedia (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, from the Columbia University Press) & gazetteer, medical encyclopedia & other valuable reference resources. Thousands of articles available here in HTML, with useful links to related topics.

 

English, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew,Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish &Vietnamese. Also specialised dictionaries including Computers, Law, Science.

 

17 - History

 
  • Periodical Historical Atlas of Europe

    How have the states of Europe changed from century to century in the last two millenniums? Check it out in the 21 maps of this atlas. Some interesting Roman features too.

 

18 - Mathematics

 

The Electronic Library of Mathematics contains free online journals, article collections, and monographs in the field of mathematics. View on-line or download as .pdfs for offline use.

 

A comprehensive and interactive mathematics encyclopedia intended for students, educators, maths enthusiasts and researchers. Claimed to be the Web's most complete maths resource.

 

19 - Medicine

 

"A free online medical dictionary search engine for definitions of medical terminology, pharmaceutical drugs, healthcare equipment, health conditions, medical devices, specialty terms and medical abbreviations." Note that definitions are brief, and should only be considered as a launching pad for further research. A handy resource, but self-diagnosers should note the disclaimer.

 

An online medical and health encyclopedia containing information on over 1,500 topics, including conditions, diseases, injuries, nutrition, surgeries, symptoms, tests and special topics. Use alphabetically or through the search function. The site also features significant current news stories and a variety of other resources.

 

A collection of searchable biomedical books for the Web. Illustrated, in HTML. Medical issues covered include asthma, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, & retroviruses. There are also more general works on topics including the Cell, Developmental Biology, Glycobiology, Genes and Disease, Immunobiology and Neurochemistry.

 

20 - Military History

Richard Jensen offers a large page oflinks to a wide variety of resources in this subject area, from ancient times to present day. Jensen is an American scholar (retired Professor of History)

 

21 - Philosophy

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Alphabetical and searchable. A voluntary academic effort.

 

22 - Poetry

Many traditional poems, plus lyrics of traditional songs. To read online, or download as zipped files to your PC.

 

23 - Research

 
  • FreeFullText.com

    Provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by anyone for free (though some may require free registration).

 

The Public Library of Science is provided by "a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource". PLoS will publish its own journals.

 

24 - E-Library of Science Mathematics

E-books plus a few philosophy, physics and other titles. In pdf format (use the Adobe Reader).

 

25 - Science Fiction/Fantasy, & Horror

 

Never screened, these Seventh Doctor stories from 1992-1997 are a rare treasure from the friendly folk at the BBC. Online, by page in SHTML, or in plain text chapters if you wish to print them out.

 

Online since August 1997, UK-based Infinity Plus publishes some original fiction, but mostly republishes those short stories & other shorter works you're always trying to find again. With extra input from many writers that you may not see anywhere else. As such, this wonderful archive is a boon to devotees. Online in HTML, or you can save them ('Save as...') to read off-line. However please remember they remain copyright for all purposes other than simple reading.

 

SF/Fantasy e-books & assistance for the physically impaired. ReadAssist is an organization of Science Fiction and Fantasy fans with an easy-to-use site streamlined to assist those with physical disabilities. They provide links to sources of both free and purchasable written and audio e-books, in those genres. Further links are to software & hardware of use to those with impaired mobility or vision.

 

Gormglaith, by Heidi Wyss. 76,000 words of radical feminist separatist literature set in what is claimed to be a scientifically plausible future. Aesthetically presented for online reading.

 

Godspawn, by A. Zoic. A prophetic title with a human clone hero. Written at sunny Balmoral Beach in Sydney, & available in no less than 11 formats. Worth visiting the site for the impressive audio-visual opening alone (Active X controls must be enabled -if you get a blank site, check your browser settings).

 

Grotesque, A Gothic Epic, by Graven. An intense, illustrated Gothic novel about religion and the Black Death. With animated sound effects, online in HTML plus. Excellently presented, but with its gruesome theme not for the faint-hearted.

 

26 - Technical Reports Online

 

Links to technical reports, preprints, reprints, dissertations, theses, and research reports of all kinds, as either full-text reports or searchable extended abstracts.

 

27 - Television

 

Includes more than 1,000 essays examining programmes, people, historic moments and trends, disputes, scandals and much else in the saga of the small screen. Also contains histories of major TV networks and broadcasting systems around the world, plus resource materials, photos and bibliographical information.

 

28 - Travel

Universal Currency Converter.

 

29 - IIT - Information Interactive Technology

This Netherlands-based site offers some classic e -books include Wodehouse humour, Sherlock Holmes and a serious essay About Violence and Democracy. There are also mini travel guides for all European countries. In PDF, use the Adobe Reader. Patience may be required; this site is slow to download for modem users.

 

30 - U.S. Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, all Amendments, the Monroe Doctrine, the Emancipation Proclamation & the Gettysburg Address

Fully indexed. Available free as a downloadable zip file (requires a zip utility to decompress). Download the freedom.zip (40kb) under the sub-heading Freedom documents, from R.E. Harvey.

 

31 - U.S. Rightwing Christian Fundamentalism

The Institute for Christian Economics is a Texas-based, U.S. Christian fundamentalist site. Many "bible-based" religious & social titles are offered, plus a substantial foray into conservative and pro-free market economics & politics. Books are available in HTML or the DjVu compressed file format. The site authors recommend the latter, which they claim is superior to & less memory-hungry than PDF for representing original works. A free DjVu reader may be downloaded from the site.

 

32 - Website Development

Rick Rouse provides several free e-books, downloadable as zip files, for webmasters. They include How To Get Thousands Of Links To Your Website and How To Triple Your Website Traffic Every 90 Days under the heading Webmaster Freebies. Also some useful software for webmasters.

 

33 - William Blake Archive

Literary and visual works by William Blake and his circle. Includes fully searchable and scalable electronic editions of all of Blake's 19 illuminated works. In HTML & SGML. With Biography, Glossary, and Chronology. Sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, with some high-powered support.

 
  Free Medical Books
 

1 - Free Books for Doctors

The unrestricted access to scientific knowledge will have a major impact on medical practice. FreeBooks4Doctors! is dedicated to the promotion of free access to medical books over the Internet.

 

2 - Handhelds for Doctors

Read the text free. A paperback version is also available for purchase.