Internet Archive Part 2: Bunches of Books in your Browser

Via the Internet you have access to all kinds of online and downloadable full-text books that we’ve mentioned here before (Don’t forget Dayton Metro offers a wide variety of new and classic texts in various formats on our website: overdrive.daytonmetrolibrary.org ) but you’ll be surprised at what you can find at the Internet Archive. From the homepage www.archive.org click on the tab titled “Texts” for access to over 1.5 million texts.

Libraries across the world have scanned rare and not so rare books into digital formats. You can look at the most downloaded titles on the right, look at the newest additions via the link in the center, or browse specific collections a bit lower down the page.

Read the first edition of Little Women: http://www.archive.org/details/littlewomenormeg00alcoiala online or download it in a number of formats to read on your computer or mobile device from the links in the “view the book” box at the left. This was scanned at the University of California. You can click on the author’s name or the publisher’s name to find other similar texts.

For scholars of Children’s Literature texts like Comtesse de Segur’s “Old French Fairtales” http://www.archive.org/details/oldfrenchfairyta00sgrich offered for study or leisure reading with all its illustrations intact.

You can also find some odder materials like those items in the Prelinger Library which collects and preserves ephemeral publications like this US Government pamphlet about surviving a nuclear attack from 1959: http://www.archive.org/details/falloutprotectio00unitrich

It’s addictive if you are interested, and it’s amazing what they have collected. Happy Surfing!

-- Tim, Main Library