By Earl Hunsinger
There are literally hundreds of thousands of books published each year, with English being the most common language for publication. It would be impossible for an individual to store, much less read, all of these. In many places public libraries provide convenient repositories for some of these books. As an example, the largest library in the world, the United States Library of Congress, has millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps, and manuscripts in its collections. It even provides a searchable online catalog. More specialized libraries are also available at various universities and other institutions. However, what do you do if you don’t live close to a major library? Or your local library doesn’t have the book that you are looking for?
Many book collections are now available online. The Internet Public Library has links to dozens of online resources. This is a service founded at the University of Michigan School of Information and hosted by Drexel University’s College of Information Science & Technology. The online libraries referenced cover a broad range of topics.
Not surprisingly, the most common books found online are the classics. These are works that have endured the test of time. In addition, these works are generally in the public domain, or no longer protected by copyright. Such classics include those found in The Harvard Classics and Shelf of Fiction, which is available online at Bartleby.com. This is a collection that began in 1909 as the result of a challenge to Harvard University’s president Charles Eliot. He had made the statement that a liberal education could be obtained simply by reading for fifteen minutes a day from a collection of books that could fit on a three foot shelf. This estimate was later expanded to a five foot shelf. Challenged to provide such a collection, the now famous Harvard Classics was born. Bartleby’s also provides the complete text to the 1914 Oxford edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. The Classic Literature Library also contains the complete works of Shakespeare. In addition, it has the German translations of 19 of his plays. It also contains the complete works of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others.
Other sites have similar collections, such as Bibliomania.com, which has 2,000 classic texts online, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page, which has over 25,000 free books online. In addition to works of fiction, many of these sites include dictionaries, thesauruses, and religious books, such as the Bible and Koran.
There is no doubt that the Internet is making it easier to do research on virtually any subject imaginable. This accessibility has now reached out to encompass classic works of fiction. This facilitates the search for a particular piece of text when doing research, making it an invaluable tool. Many of the sites mentioned above also allow you to purchase a favorite book. Others, such as Project Gutenberg allow you to download a book to a palm organizer or smart phone.
With more and more books being added every year, and the ability to access them from anywhere, some feel that electronic books will someday completely replace those made from paper. Has the advent of online books sounded the death knell for bound books? What if, like many, you find the experience of reading from a computer screen when reading for pleasure to be unsatisfying? Then why not do the unthinkable, turn off your computer and visit your local library or book store. While it may not have all of the hundreds of thousands of new books published this year, you may find that the ability to hold a real book in your hands holds a pleasure that cannot be duplicated.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of books published each year, with English being the most common language for publication. It would be impossible for an individual to store, much less read, all of these. In many places public libraries provide convenient repositories for some of these books. As an example, the largest library in the world, the United States Library of Congress, has millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps, and manuscripts in its collections. It even provides a searchable online catalog. More specialized libraries are also available at various universities and other institutions. However, what do you do if you don’t live close to a major library? Or your local library doesn’t have the book that you are looking for?
Many book collections are now available online. The Internet Public Library has links to dozens of online resources. This is a service founded at the University of Michigan School of Information and hosted by Drexel University’s College of Information Science & Technology. The online libraries referenced cover a broad range of topics.
Not surprisingly, the most common books found online are the classics. These are works that have endured the test of time. In addition, these works are generally in the public domain, or no longer protected by copyright. Such classics include those found in The Harvard Classics and Shelf of Fiction, which is available online at Bartleby.com. This is a collection that began in 1909 as the result of a challenge to Harvard University’s president Charles Eliot. He had made the statement that a liberal education could be obtained simply by reading for fifteen minutes a day from a collection of books that could fit on a three foot shelf. This estimate was later expanded to a five foot shelf. Challenged to provide such a collection, the now famous Harvard Classics was born. Bartleby’s also provides the complete text to the 1914 Oxford edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. The Classic Literature Library also contains the complete works of Shakespeare. In addition, it has the German translations of 19 of his plays. It also contains the complete works of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others.
Other sites have similar collections, such as Bibliomania.com, which has 2,000 classic texts online, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page, which has over 25,000 free books online. In addition to works of fiction, many of these sites include dictionaries, thesauruses, and religious books, such as the Bible and Koran.
There is no doubt that the Internet is making it easier to do research on virtually any subject imaginable. This accessibility has now reached out to encompass classic works of fiction. This facilitates the search for a particular piece of text when doing research, making it an invaluable tool. Many of the sites mentioned above also allow you to purchase a favorite book. Others, such as Project Gutenberg allow you to download a book to a palm organizer or smart phone.
With more and more books being added every year, and the ability to access them from anywhere, some feel that electronic books will someday completely replace those made from paper. Has the advent of online books sounded the death knell for bound books? What if, like many, you find the experience of reading from a computer screen when reading for pleasure to be unsatisfying? Then why not do the unthinkable, turn off your computer and visit your local library or book store. While it may not have all of the hundreds of thousands of new books published this year, you may find that the ability to hold a real book in your hands holds a pleasure that cannot be duplicated.
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