December 27, 2003

Read it, online

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, ... Dickens, available at literature.org, Online Literature Library. Other notable classics are available at the library online.

Sometimes the local brick or board library is not open and you may want to look for a quote or read a passage, or look up a favorite classic, person, event, fact, phrase, news, or author. There are several online book resources making this content freely available.

These libraries never close.

  • The Internet Classics Archive - Massachusettes Institute of Technology[MIT] media lab, Bringing the wisdom of the classics to the Internet since 1994. 440+ entries.
  • the ETEXT Archives, Free Publishing Services Home to electronic texts of all kinds, from the sacred to the profane, from the political to the personal. Our mission is to provide electronic versions of texts without judging their content. eZines, Politics, Fiction, Religion, Poetry, Quartz ...
  • Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library Since 1992, the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library has pursued twin missions with equal seriousness of purpose: to build and maintain an internet-accessible collection of SGML and XML texts and images; to build and maintain user communities adept at the creation and use of these materials. The Center combines an on-line archive of tens of thousands of SGML and XML-encoded electronic texts and images with a library service that offers hardware and software suitable for the creation and analysis of text. From George Washington Manuscripts to content available for Microsoft Reader and Palm Pilot ... this site has made content available for more than a million visitors and 5 million downloadable documents[March 2002], 70,000 texts, mostly online, including history, literature, philosophy, religion, history of science. Languages include Latin, Apache, Japanese, and Chinese. from: eText FAQ page.
  • Project Gutenberg at Sailor Fine Literature Digitally Re-Published The project started in 1971, by Michael Hart, at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. The First archived piece, the Declaration of Independence the goal, get all library content in digital format and archived. Read more about the Project Guttenberg History and Philosophy.
  • Bibliomania - over 2000 Classics , searchable collections, news, featured texts.
  • The Online Books Page began, 1993, by John Mark Ockerbloom while a student at Carnegie Mellon, and is hosted at University of Pennsylvania, over 20.000 listings of books/texts online. News, Features, Inside Story: The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all. from: About The Online Books Page
  • EServer.org: Accessible Writing Project started 1990, is now based at Iowa State University. We are increasing efforts to publish new works (31849 so far). . Includes Academic Journals, popular magazines, resources for students and teachers. Great Categorical listings, including a section on a favorite of mine, Henry D. Thoreau, Thoreau Reader The EServer is a unique website where 281 writers, artists, editors and scholars gather to publish and discuss their works (currently 31849 of them in all). from: About the EServer.
  • Internet Public Library[ipl.org], a working internet library which includes staff that will answer reference questions, though check the FARQ page first. There are great resources for reading, writing, and popular library items on this page including info on ISBN, Dewey Decimal System, Cliff Notes, citing works, Newspaper Archives, Rare books, words, phrases, common popular books and manuals, much more. The Internet Library Page FARQ, is well worth bookmarking.
  • OBI, the On-line Book Initiative barebones directories of freely availabe online texts, 1990, via Barry Barry Shein of Brookline, MA. from the README page.

For those that want more focussed online reading of web development or design text or topics, these books are available and also in print.

There are also no overdue fines or cards needed to download text or read it online. [I believe I do have a few overdue books to return to my local library, today.]

Posted by Holly at December 27, 2003 03:55 AM | TrackBack