Tens of thousands are books are now available free on a variety of web sites.
These books have been digitized and can be read, downloaded or printed. You
will NOT find your textbooks, the latest fiction or most books that have appeared
in the past 50 years. Most titles that can be accessed are titles not in copyright
- most published before 1923. The following are a sampling of the many eBook
resources available.
Reference Books
Credo Reference
Credo
Reference is a 24/7 online reference library that provides access
to a selection of over 400 reference books. Credo Reference includes
encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, as well
as a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to
accountancy and literature to law. A current alphabetical list of all
available titles can be found here.
URL: http://www.credoreference.com/advanced.do
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. In many cases, these are multi-volume reference works previously only available in a physical form in the library. Now you can access them online from the library or remotely 24/7. Chicago State has access to more than 40 titles. Featured titles include Contemporary Black Biography, a 71 volume biographical reference source and International Directory of Company Histories, a massive 93 volume encyclopedia of business history. A current alphabetical list of all available titles can be found here.
URL: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/uiuc_csu?db=gvrl
URL:http://library.csu.edu/eresources/ebooks/csu07.pdf
The
University of Illinois Library Weblog
This blog provides access to the digitized book of the week as presented
by the University of Illinois. The University is digitizing and contributing
to the Internet Archive books and serials from its collections that focus
on Illinois history, literature, and natural resources; rural life and agriculture;
and railroad history and engineering.
URL: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/digitizedbotw/
URL: Project
Gutenburg
Project Gutenburg is the first and largest single collection of eBooks. As
of August 2006, there are over 19,000 eBooks available, with an average of
400 more being added each month. They cannot publish any texts still in copyright
without permission. This generally means that the texts are taken from books
published pre-1923. You won't find the latest bestsellers or modern computer
books here. You will find the classic books from the start of this century
and previous centuries, from authors like Shakespeare, Poe, and Dante.
URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Google book search
Working with many major universities, Google's Book Search offers differing
levels of access. "If we've determined that a book is out of copyright,
or the publisher or rightsholder has given us permission, you'll be able to
page through the entire book from start to finish, as many times as you like.
If the book is in the public domain, you'll also be able download, save and
print a PDF version to read at your own pace". Although this promises
to be a vast resource, many books are not available in full text format.
URL: http://books.google.com/ (Regular)
URL: http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search (Advanced)
The
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and
other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide
free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
In addition to text, this site provides access to audio, music and moving
images.
URL: http://www.archive.org/details/texts
The
Universal Digital Library
The mission is to create a Universal Library which will foster creativity
and free access to all human knowledge. As a first step in realizing this
mission, it is proposed to create the Universal Library with a free-to-read,
searchable collection of one million books, available to everyone over the
Internet. Within 10 years, it is our expectation that the collection will
grow to 10 Million books. The result will be a unique resource accessible
to anyone in the world 24x7, without regard to nationality or socioeconomic
background.
URL: http://www.ulib.org/index.html
The Directory of Illinois Foundations
Accurate and up-to-date information about foundations and corporate giving programs in Illinois
http://library.csu.edu/eresources/ebooks/doif.html
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