Individual Topics/Miscellaneous
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1 – Alchemy e-books The text is plain, but an amazing array of illustrations on this unusual site more than compensate. Most works are in English, but six other languages are also represented. A huge site, from alchemy authority Adam McLean. |
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2 – American Indian tales – Coyote Stories/Poems Native American stories from the American Indian Heritage Foundation, online in HTML. |
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3 – British Women Romantic Poets Project E-text editions of poetry by British and Irish women written (not necessarily published) between 1789 and 1832, a period traditionally known in English literary history as the Romantic period. A digital initiative of the University of California, Davis, from the Shields Library. Available in HTML & SGML. |
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4 – Chemistry This useful site from Alexander Ragoisha of Byelorussia offers free Full-Text Journals in Chemistry. Most are English language, with a section in Russian. Usually in HTML and/or PDF. |
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5 – Children’s/Young Adult Books A variety of famous classic titles. |
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6 – Children’s Books Online: the Rosetta Project Children’s illustrated literature. Hundreds of children’s books online. Because of the high picture content each page is presented as a separate image file (jpeg), or the whole book may be downloaded as a compressed (zip) file to read offline. In English, with some translated variously into Chinese, Farsi, Finnish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Maori, Polish, Romanian or Swedish. |
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7 – Comics |
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8 – Computing |
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9 – Cooking |
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10 – Current Affairs From prolific writer Shmuel (Sam) Vaknin: lively, controversial musings on issues in economics, politics, the Balkans, international affairs, history, psychology and more. Download as MS Word, RTF (Rich Text Format) or PDF files. |
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11 – E-book publishing This fledgling e-publisher/bookstore also offers some free inspirational/New Age titles, free covers for e-authors & a free e-book on drawing. |
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12 – Economics The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) “groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy”, and does extensive economic and social research. You can get some summary information from OECD publications free here |
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13 – Electronics ee.com A free technical library and professional community for electrical and electronics engineers. Contains over 5,600 documents in a variety of forms. Qualified contributions welcome. Resource areas include aerospace, analogue and digital design, biomedical technology, computer engineering, consumer electronics, digital signal processing, dsp, electric power, microprocessors, nanotechnology, magnetic & electro physics, jobs, meeting, business, research and development, semiconductors, telecommunication, vlsi. |
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14 – English language reference |
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Over 320,000 references & still growing, with both US and British spellings. On this minimalist (no frills) website you can look up words alphabetically or by search. |
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Prepared by a Scot who has spent some time in the USA, this fine work helps puzzled English speaking people understand American expressions better . |
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The Online Etymology Dictionary. In HTML. This valuable, attractively presented resource is from historian and author Douglas Harper. |
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15 – English literature and Classics |
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Over one thousand titles online in plain text, also versions for PC/Mac or for Palm, Visor & PocketPC. |
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A collection of classic books, plays, stories and poems for online reading. Nearly seventy |
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A select catalogue of free original and classic fiction. Available for download in MS Reader, Adobe Reader ( PDF), or to read online in your Web browser (in their Virtual Imprint WebBook format – a simple but bookmarkable double page layout. IE 5+ recommended). Their home page also offers an array of purchasable services for bibliophiles. |
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A number of famous Irish literary works available free to download as text or RTF files, also some HTML short stories to read online. Yes, all of the following famous “English” authors were actually Irish – George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), Jonathan Swift, J.M.Synge, Oscar Wilde. |
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Fiction and philosophy as novel, short story or poetry, plus the author’s autobiography. Three books available for online reading; downloads are as zipped plain text files. |
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More than a thousand scholars have contributed to this huge Web reference work, focused on literature in English. With nearly three thousand entries, and well over 5million words, there’s any amount to learn here about writers, literary works and literary topics, and numerous links to more. And they throw in a bit of a Books-in-print too! |
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16 – General Reference |
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Provides a free encyclopedia (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, from the Columbia University Press) & gazetteer, medical encyclopedia & other valuable reference resources. Thousands of articles available here in HTML, with useful links to related topics. |
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English, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew,Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish &Vietnamese. Also specialised dictionaries including Computers, Law, Science. |
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17 – History |
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How have the states of Europe changed from century to century in the last two millenniums? Check it out in the 21 maps of this atlas. Some interesting Roman features too. |
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18 – Mathematics |
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The Electronic Library of Mathematics contains free online journals, article collections, and monographs in the field of mathematics. View on-line or download as .pdfs for offline use. |
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A comprehensive and interactive mathematics encyclopedia intended for students, educators, maths enthusiasts and researchers. Claimed to be the Web’s most complete maths resource. |
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19 – Medicine |
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“A free online medical dictionary search engine for definitions of medical terminology, pharmaceutical drugs, healthcare equipment, health conditions, medical devices, specialty terms and medical abbreviations.” Note that definitions are brief, and should only be considered as a launching pad for further research. A handy resource, but self-diagnosers should note the disclaimer. |
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An online medical and health encyclopedia containing information on over 1,500 topics, including conditions, diseases, injuries, nutrition, surgeries, symptoms, tests and special topics. Use alphabetically or through the search function. The site also features significant current news stories and a variety of other resources. |
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A collection of searchable biomedical books for the Web. Illustrated, in HTML. Medical issues covered include asthma, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, & retroviruses. There are also more general works on topics including the Cell, Developmental Biology, Glycobiology, Genes and Disease, Immunobiology and Neurochemistry. |
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20 – Military History Richard Jensen offers a large page oflinks to a wide variety of resources in this subject area, from ancient times to present day. Jensen is an American scholar (retired Professor of History) |
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21 – Philosophy The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Alphabetical and searchable. A voluntary academic effort. |
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22 – Poetry Many traditional poems, plus lyrics of traditional songs. To read online, or download as zipped files to your PC. |
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23 – Research |
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Provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by anyone for free (though some may require free registration). |
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The Public Library of Science is provided by “a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource”. PLoS will publish its own journals. |
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24 – E-Library of Science Mathematics E-books plus a few philosophy, physics and other titles. In pdf format (use the Adobe Reader). |
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25 – Science Fiction/Fantasy, & Horror |
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Never screened, these Seventh Doctor stories from 1992-1997 are a rare treasure from the friendly folk at the BBC. Online, by page in SHTML, or in plain text chapters if you wish to print them out. |
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Online since August 1997, UK-based Infinity Plus publishes some original fiction, but mostly republishes those short stories & other shorter works you’re always trying to find again. With extra input from many writers that you may not see anywhere else. As such, this wonderful archive is a boon to devotees. Online in HTML, or you can save them (‘Save as…’) to read off-line. However please remember they remain copyright for all purposes other than simple reading. |
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SF/Fantasy e-books & assistance for the physically impaired. ReadAssist is an organization of Science Fiction and Fantasy fans with an easy-to-use site streamlined to assist those with physical disabilities. They provide links to sources of both free and purchasable written and audio e-books, in those genres. Further links are to software & hardware of use to those with impaired mobility or vision. |
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Gormglaith, by Heidi Wyss. 76,000 words of radical feminist separatist literature set in what is claimed to be a scientifically plausible future. Aesthetically presented for online reading. |
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Godspawn, by A. Zoic. A prophetic title with a human clone hero. Written at sunny Balmoral Beach in Sydney, & available in no less than 11 formats. Worth visiting the site for the impressive audio-visual opening alone (Active X controls must be enabled -if you get a blank site, check your browser settings). |
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Grotesque, A Gothic Epic, by Graven. An intense, illustrated Gothic novel about religion and the Black Death. With animated sound effects, online in HTML plus. Excellently presented, but with its gruesome theme not for the faint-hearted. |
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26 – Technical Reports Online |
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Links to technical reports, preprints, reprints, dissertations, theses, and research reports of all kinds, as either full-text reports or searchable extended abstracts. |
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27 – Television |
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Includes more than 1,000 essays examining programmes, people, historic moments and trends, disputes, scandals and much else in the saga of the small screen. Also contains histories of major TV networks and broadcasting systems around the world, plus resource materials, photos and bibliographical information. |
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28 – Travel Universal Currency Converter. |
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29 – IIT – Information Interactive Technology This Netherlands-based site offers some classic e -books include Wodehouse humour, Sherlock Holmes and a serious essay About Violence and Democracy. There are also mini travel guides for all European countries. In PDF, use the Adobe Reader. Patience may be required; this site is slow to download for modem users. |
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Fully indexed. Available free as a downloadable zip file (requires a zip utility to decompress). Download the freedom.zip (40kb) under the sub-heading Freedom documents, from R.E. Harvey. |
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31 – U.S. Rightwing Christian Fundamentalism The Institute for Christian Economics is a Texas-based, U.S. Christian fundamentalist site. Many “bible-based” religious & social titles are offered, plus a substantial foray into conservative and pro-free market economics & politics. Books are available in HTML or the DjVu compressed file format. The site authors recommend the latter, which they claim is superior to & less memory-hungry than PDF for representing original works. A free DjVu reader may be downloaded from the site. |
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32 – Website Development Rick Rouse provides several free e-books, downloadable as zip files, for webmasters. They include How To Get Thousands Of Links To Your Website and How To Triple Your Website Traffic Every 90 Days under the heading Webmaster Freebies. Also some useful software for webmasters. |
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Literary and visual works by William Blake and his circle. Includes fully searchable and scalable electronic editions of all of Blake’s 19 illuminated works. In HTML & SGML. With Biography, Glossary, and Chronology. Sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, with some high-powered support. |