Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER) Sustainable Learning: eBooks

Free eBooks online

*Please apply general rules of evaluating resources. Some of these sites are from commercial organisations rather than academic institutions and so the academic quality and usefullness of the resource can not be guaranteed.

50 best websites to find free eBooks
An eBook reference list created by the blog Hongkiat. Hongkiat is a design weblog dedicated to designers and bloggers, which often features articles about e-resources, including e-readers and eBooks.
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
A collection of electronic texts with a focus on Western philosophy and American + English Literature. Of particular use to Arts students.
Avalon project:Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
An online library of significant documents in Law, History and Diplomacy as compiled by Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library. These documents range from ancient times (4000 BCE-399AD) through to 21st century documents. Noted collections include project DIANA, an online human rights archive, and the International Military Tribunal for Germany archive for documents relating to the Nuremberg trials.
Barnes & Noble free eBooks
Barnes and Noble offers free eBooks, including some popular fiction titles, self published eBooks, and classic fiction titles.
DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books
1600+ academic peer-reviewed books from 54 publishers. Can search for books by title, subject or publisher. The majority of the books are in Arts related fields of study.
Google eBooks
Use the direct search box in the tool bar on the left side.
Hathi Trust Digital Library
Hathi Trust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Their focus is on long term preservation of and access to materials.
The International Children's Digital Library
This is the preeminent online library for free children's e-books. With over 4,461 books in 55 different languages, the ICDL is a great resource for educators and counselors.
Internet Archive Text Archive
Over five million books and other items from over 1500 curated collections.
Site has a user forum available for any troubleshooting needs.
National Academies Press
Over 700 free texts available to read online. Create a free account first. Read more about it on this library blog post.
Open Library
This is an initiative of the Internet Archive.
Perseus Digital Library
A Tufts University initiative supporting the study of the Classical world. The Greek and Roman collection is the most popular but the site also provides access to materials from Arabic, Germanic, Renaissance, and 19th century American collections.
Project Gutenberg
Over 33,000 free e-books are available for download at Project Gutenberg. These are e-books published before the 20th century and are free because their U.S. copyrights have expired.
Smithsonian Digital Library
Online books and selected serials from the Smithsonian. Content is available on all eReaders.
Universal Library Project
Pioneered by Carnegie Mellon University staff and supported by the Indian, Chinese and Egyptian governments. A multilingual collection of scanned volumes.
Note: Quality of scanned documents is uneven in some cases.
University of Michigan: Digital Collections
List of all digital collections maintained by the University of Michigan. This includes the Digital General Collection- 30 000+ scanned volumes from the University's general collection- and various text and art archives spanning multiple subject areas.

Note: Some of the collections are only available to University of Michigan students.

Cal Poly Humboldt Library's eBook Packages

The Library provides eBook access on a number of platforms, including:

ACLS Humanities Ebooks

EBSCO eBook Collection (includes collection formerly known as NetLibrary)

ebrary

Gale Virtual Reference Library

EBL (Ebook Library)

O'Reilly Learning

Scribner Writers Series

SpringerLink

eBooks on these platforms are represented in the library catalog.

Consult your librarian for help with access to eBooks.

eBook Purchasing Options

When requesting an eBook purchase, please be aware that access options for eBooks vary:

Single-user editions: allow access to one user at a time. While one person is viewing the eBook, it is unavailable to others. The typical message is: "Sorry, this eBook is in use." Almost all NetLibrary books, available on the EBSCO platform, are single-user titles.

Multi-user editions: the eBook is either: 1) simultaneously available to a set number of users (typically three), or 2) available for unlimited simultaneous use. For example, almost all Ebrary and all SpringerLink eBooks are available for unlimited simultaneous use.

Non-Linear Lending: the vendor designates a maximum number of uses per year (typically 325) and allows unlimited simultaneous access. When the maximum number of uses is reached, the eBook becomes inaccessible. Continued access is obtained by re-purchasing the eBook. We have purchased a small number of eBooks from Ebook Library (EBL) with this option.

If you would like the HSU Library to consider purchasing a specific eBook, please consult with your librarian, who will work with you to determine if/how the eBook is available. Purchasing any book is at the discretion of the librarian and budget availability.