Ready Reference: Electronic Texts

Digital Libraries | E-Books | E-Journals | History | Literature | Newspapers | Poetry | Reference



Copyright: materials produced after 1923, even those on the Internet, are copyrighted and are not "free" unless permission is supplied by the author or creator. The sites below generally provide access to materials that a) are in the public domain (produced prior to 1923) or b) are made available by the creators (such as journals). Look for information on the page for any restrictions on use. Many of the pages listed here will provide access to primary sources.

Digital Libraries

Digital libraries are collections of a variety of materials that have been digitized, including books, articles, letters, journals, photographs, art works, videos, sound recordings, and more.


American Memory Collections: This is the product of the National Digital Library's efforts "to digitize and deliver electronically the distinctive, historical Americana holdings at the Library of Congress, including photographs, manuscripts, rare books, maps, recorded sound, and moving pictures."
Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE: A number of digital collections ranging from oral histories to papyri, with links to other collections.
Digital Librarian: Electronic Texts & Primary Sources: An extensive list of links with brief descriptions gathered by a librarian at SUNY Cortland.
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library: A number of digital collections including photographs, letters, sheet music, papers, and other types of materials.
Electronic Text Center: University of Virginia's collection of 5,000+ electronic texts and 164,00+ images available to the public.
EServer: The EServer, formerly the English Server at Carnegie Mellon, offers access to full text information
across the disciplines, including literature, art, drama, government, history, languages, culture, and technology.
Google Books (Advanced Search): Includes full text for many out-of-copyright books (generally 1923 or earlier)
NYPL Digital Gallery: "Provides access to over 337,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more."
OAIster: Search for digital resources in a wide variety of collections from many institutions. OAIster is a project sponsored by the Mellon Foundation at the University of Michigan. OAI stands for Open Archives Initiative.
Perseus Digital Library: This site has links to classical plays, texts, papers and other documents.

E-Books

These are growing libraries of the full contents of books freely available on the Internet.

BibleGateway: Search the text of the Bible in seven versions and/or ten different languages.
Internet Public Library Online Texts Collection: "Contains over 12,000 titles that can be browsed by author, by title, or by Dewey Decimal Classification."
Net-Library: "eBooks are electronic versions of printed books." The free part of this library consists of books in the public domain.
On-Line Books Page: "A directory of books that can be freely read right on the Internet." Includes over 10,000 books.
Project Gutenberg: Over 2,400 e-books in the public domain (published prior to 1923). Search by author or title.

E-Journals

Many printed magazines and journals offer some or all of their content online. The following lists also include ejournals and webzines that exist only as online publications.

FindArticles.com: This online collection of full text articles that can be read and/or printed at no cost is available to everyone. Begun in 1998, it is updated daily. SUNY Oneonta users can access the extensive range of article databases and research resources listed at Databases by Name (A-Z).
Gold Rush: Search GoldRush to find out which article databases (e.g., ERIC) include the magazine or journal you need. From the Colorado Alliance.
Internet Public Library Online Serials: Links to over 3,000 magazines and journals that are available online, arranged by subject.
MagPortal.com: Find articles from free magazines by browsing the subject categories or using their search engine. SUNY Oneonta users can access the extensive range of article databases and research resources listed at Central Search .
NewJour: The searchable archive for new journals and newsletters on the Internet includes descriptions and links for over 11,000 publications.

History

These are some of the better known and substantial sites that provide electronic texts specifically relevant to history, including many primary sources.


The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: "Documents in law, history, and diplomacy."
A Chronology of US Historical Documents: Select a period from a time line to a list of links to the full text of documents relevant to that period. From the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Electronic Text Center: American Civil War: Includes the full text of newspapers, letters, diaries, and other papers written during the Civil War.
GPO Access Database List: Links to U.S. government laws, bills, manuals, presidential papers, and much more.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Full Text: Full text sources for Medieval history arranged by time period (Renaissance, Reformation) and topically (e.g. medieval thought, historiography).
In the First Person: This site contains links to first person documents and collections, as well as links to historical events.
Making of America: "A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strongin the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 1,600 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints."

Literature

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts: "A collection of digital documents collected in the subject areas of English literature, American literature, and Western philosophy."
Bartleby: Great Books Online: Features the full text version of reference books, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of major historic and literary figures.
ClassicBookshelf.com: Largely American and British classics, but with the advantage of offering a java reading applet that allows users to control the text size, font, and background color. It makes online reading very pleasant.
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts: Links to the text of folk tale, fairy tales, and myths from around the world.

Newspapers

Many newspaper publishers now have Web sites where they offer either the full text of their articles online, or selected articles. Some offer only current issues online. Below are links to collected lists of online newspapers.


AJR NewsLink: An index to "more than 3,400 U.S. newspapers and 2,000 non-U.S. papers" now available online.
Internet Public Library Online Newspapers: Select a continent, then a country for links to newspapers available online.
OnlineNewspapers.com: Select a country (in the U.S. select a state) from a drop down menu of continents, and go to a page of online newspaper links for that country.

Poetry

Representative Poetry On-line: English poems of 310 poets from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century.
Twentieth-century Poetry in English: Links to Web pages devoted to over 150 poets, including the text of their poems.

Reference

Many standard reference books are now available online. This is a sampling of some of the better known and widely used references.

Bartleby.com: Includes the text of 30 standard reference works, including Columbia Encyclopedia, Gray's Anatomy, Strunk's Elements of Style, and Brewer's Phrase and Fable.
Catholic Encyclopedia: The 1917 edition of this well-known encyclopedia with lengthy articles on all things Catholic and Christian.
CIA World Factbook: Standard U.S. government resource to countries of the world, providing facts and figures about geography, people, economy, government, military, transportation, and communications.
Duhaime's Law Dictionary: Definitions of legal terms written in plain English from Canadian lawyer Lloyd Duhaime.
Encyclopedia Britannica: The well-reputed encyclopedia is now available online, with the text of the encyclopedia and links to topical Web sites, and related books and articles.
Information Please Almanac: The almanac we all know with additional services via the Web.
Merck Manual: The Merck Manual provides "useful clinical information to practicing physicians, medical students, interns, residents, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals in a concise, complete, and accurate manner."
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: The standard dictionary and thesaurus in a searchable, online version.
Occupational Outlook Handbook: A U.S. government publication that "describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations."
Statistical Abstract of the United States: Statistical tables compiled from the reports of many federal agencies, covering hundreds of topics. An essential source of statistics for any research concerning the U.S. 1995-2000 years available.
United States Government Manual: The standard reference for information on U.S. government agencies including descriptions, names, and addresses.