Newswise — Researchers rejoice. Unwrap your new e-reader this holiday season and load it with free digitized books from an era gone by.
The Cornell University Library – by way of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit library that provides access to a growing cache of materials to the public – is offering more than 80,000 books in a digital format, all in the public domain and originally printed before 1923 mainly in the United States. The Web site is: http://archive.org/details/cornell
Subjects include American history, English literature, astronomy, food and wine, general engineering, the history of science, home economics, hospitality and travel, labor relations, Native American materials, ornithology, veterinary medicine and women's studies.
This new collaboration repurposes nearly 80,000 books that the library has already digitized either in-house or through its partnership with Microsoft and Kirtas Technologies.
Internet Archive, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving materials in all formats and well known for its “Wayback Machine” Web site, includes the library’s digitized collection in its searchable database. Books are available in multiple formats, including PDF, flipbook and full text on-screen. Nearly 750,000 users are registered on the site.
The collaboration with Internet Archive is another step in Cornell University Library’s cutting-edge participation in mass digitization initiatives. Earlier this year, the library announced an expanded print-on-demand partnership with Amazon.com that allows readers to pay for reprinting of books on an individual basis.
Performing a simple search for one of Cornell University Library’s digitized books now brings up both a copy on Amazon and a free online copy on the Internet Archive.
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