THE ONLINE BOOKS PAGE - FREE BOOKS

What exactly is the OnLine Books Page?

The Online Books Page is a website that gives access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of online books, for the benefit and interest of all.

The online books that get listed on this site have been authored, placed online, and hosted, by a wide variety of individuals and groups throughout the world. The books are equally as diverse regarding their place in history.

Is Online Books Page trying to replace traditional libraries?

No, it would seem far from it. Instead they are trying to explore the rich history and intellectual traditions of libraries and what they have to offer the dynamic and admittedly chaotic world of the Internet.

How many books are included on this site?

The local index includes more than 18,000 English works in many different formats that meet a certain criteria. They are all free for personal, non-commercial use. Visitors to the site can find the books or serial magazines by:

• Searching the Listings by Author and Title
• Browsing the New Listings
• Browsing by Author
• Browsing by Title
• Browsing by Subject
• Browsing the Serial/Magazine archives

What if I can’t find the material I am looking for?

Visitors to the site may also be interested in the” Books in Progress or Requested” section. It is a list of books that readers have advised they are either working on - or - they have requested to be included.

Items will disappear from the list when they are completed and open to the public in which case they will be more to likely appear in the indexes of The Online Books Page. They will also disappear if more than enough time goes by without any indication of progress, or the person who expressed interest in the work does not continue with it or the work becomes unreachable on the Web site.

Much of this information is courtesy “Project Gutenberg”.

Are other projects doing the same thing on the Internet?

Yes there are, but each with their own particular “flavour”.

• Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books, be they either in the form of eBooks or eTexts. The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information; books and other materials available to the general public in format that the vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search.
• The Internet Public Library has an index that many may also find useful. They have fewer full books, but more short texts, and non-English texts. See: http://www.ipl.org/div/about/iplfaq.html
• Also, for online books that are not free, try this index of electronic publishers from the Open Directory.

Are there any outstanding sections listed on the site?

Some special exhibits have been prepared in collaboration with the Online Books Page: Special exhibits of particularly interesting classes of online books include:

• A Celebration of Women Writers - is a section that provides a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers, and complete published books written by women
• Banned Books Online - this section gives links to selected books that have been the subject of censorship or censorship attempts. Readers can view for themselves what someone obviously felt was too dangerous for others to read. There are also some interesting pointers to current censorship-related stories.
• Prize Winning Books Online - a section that provides links to online books that have been honoured with major literary awards, including the Newbery Award, the Nobel Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. An opportunity to read great literature, and see what kinds of books impacted on different parts of the last century. This section also lists titles of books that could be placed online by interested volunteers.

How can an individual support the growth of online books?

There are lots of ways of becoming involved. Volunteers and associates are always welcome. If you find the online books site enjoyable and worthwhile, you might wish to become involved personally. Here are a couple of things you can do:

• Join the Book People mailing list. Here you can talk about online books and related issues with like-minded people who produce and use free online books.
• Suggest more books to go online. There is a link on the site that describes how to do this.
• If you find more on-line books elsewhere on the Internet, advise OnLine Books Page so they can link to them
• If you are an author, budding or otherwise, give permission for your books to go online. An online version of your book can reach readers worldwide, and make your writing available long after print copies are no longer available on bookstore’s shelves. Further, if your book is hard to find in stores, an online version with ordering capabilities has been shown to increase sales!
• Support free speech, fair use, and the public domain. They're all good for society, and they also make it possible to put even more books online.

Who's Responsible, and Who Supports the OnLine Books page?

The Online Books Page was founded, and is edited, by a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page originally was founded in 1993.

The Online Books Page is developed in collaboration with a great many people and projects. Updates and corrections come from countless readers over the Internet.

The books themselves are mostly prepared by a variety of projects and individuals.

How is the site funded?

This site is not funded by subscription fees, or by advertising. All of the information on this site is provided free of charge to all. They do not solicit or run any paid advertising on this site.

At this time, there is no budget for The Online Books Page as such. The time to maintain the site is donated by the editor (with the blessing of his employer), and the overhead for keeping the server going is paid for by the Penn Library.

What if I wanted to link to OnLine Books Page from my personal Web site?

Links to any point in the pages are said to be welcome, and ordinary links do not require permission. However, if you want to redistribute or 'mirror' substantial portions of these listings or pages, or create derivative works or displays based on them (beyond what is clearly allowed by fair use), prior written permission is required. Write to the editor at the address below to pursue permissions.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au