eBooks

Ebooks are an attractive idea at a time when electronic information is fast becoming the main way to receive information. They have been much hyped, though and some would say that not enough serious effort has been put in to promote them to the general public or attention paid to developing the software to read them. Experts have long been predicting the death of the paper book but somehow the ebook revolution is a long-time coming.

Students will be able to use the library to link to ebook websites on the internet and read free ebooks, which are easily downloadable and have a go at reading an ebook and making up your own mind about whether they should replace conventional books or whether the idea will ever catch on.

Related links

The following websites have free ebooks to download and try:

• http://www.gutenberg.net/
  Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts). The present collection of more than 10.000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.
• http://www.free-ebooks.net/
  Online resource for free eBook downloads, eBook resources and eBook authors.
• http://etext.virginia.edu/ebooks/
  Over 2,100 publicly-available ebooks from the University of Virginia Library's Etext Center, including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, American history, Shakespeare, African-American documents, the Bible, and much more.
• http://www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=FRE
  Microsoft's reader catalogue of eBooks.
• http://www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/freebooks.html
  Adobe's Free eBooks area, you can download, unlock, and read electronic books on your personal computer or reading device.