Literature lovers may enjoy Open Editions, a site providing "open-source electronic scholarly editions of public domain literature." Guided by the "principles of the Free and Open Source Software movement," the platform is dedicated to accessibility and accuracy. Not only does Open Editions make texts freely available to readers, but the site also "aim[s] to aggregate the literary knowledge that...

Launched in January, 2000, this collaborative project of the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University Press (OUP) will "study digital book use and its impact on teaching, learning, and book sales." While the full collection of texts (300-400 titles in history over the next five years) will only be available to the Penn community, the project does offer a preview site for the general...

How many people are reading e-books? How often do they read them? These are but a few of the queries that animated this recent research study by a team of five staff members at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The 68-page report was released in April 2012, and visitors can read the document in its entirety, or peruse the overview offered here. Based on their polling, the authors found...

Back in 1971, Michael Hart was given an operator's account with $100 million of computer time in it, courtesy of the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. He decided to give something back by creating electronic versions of different important documents, such as the Declaration of Independence. Thus, Project Gutenberg was born, and...

Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Online Books Page Web site "facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet...and aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all." The over 18,000 listings can be searched or browsed by author, title, and subject, of which every major physical science subject is represented....

"Does the world really need another edition of Thomas More's Utopia?" asks Stephen Duncombe, the editor of The Open Utopia. After all, Utopia has been in print almost continuously since first published in 1516 and available in digital version since 2012. The Open Utopia joins a community of other freely available online editions, such as the Gutenberg Project version, Oregon State University, or...

The University of California (UC) presents electronic editions of over 50 academic titles in the fields of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian studies; Classics; Literature; and European History. The editions offer frames that include the text itself and a detailed table of contents. The texts are available free for online browsing and study, but, of course, cannot be downloaded. Those who...

For a limited time, users may download a considerable number of recent titles from UNESCO publishing for free. Most of the titles are available free until the end of May 2001, but a few may be accessed until the end of August 2001. The titles are listed by topic (e.g., social and ethical issues, human rights) and may be downloaded after registration (an email address is the only required...