open-library

Phil Gons has some excellent information regarding a newly released site: OpenLibrary.org. It is an offshoot of the already mentioned Internet Archive. In addition to providing a whole host of open-domain books in full text (just over 1 million at time of writing), they have the ambitious goal of dedicating a page for every book ever written!

Check out Phil Gons’s post for the details, as well as a list of other sites that provide free books. It is very much worth a bookmark. As is everything Phil graces us with, like this little gem.

 

Though I’ve mentioned it several times, it’s worth repeating: the Internet Archive is a truly wonderful resource. It contains a wide variety of legal downloads in the open domain. I’m currently reading a little Origen (disseration work) while listening to recent Béla Fleck Christmas Concerts.

For the latter below, go here or here, or just listen below.

 
Use WebNotes to annotate your favorite sites

Use WebNotes to annotate your favorite sites

The web is now a primary arena for serious research. With Google Scholar, the Internet Archive, academic blogs where writers self-publish their complete works (such as this one), it is now possible to do a whole host of respectable research on the internet.

But how do you take notes on a web page? Should you print it out? That seems to miss the point. Use Zotero? Sure, for simple things, but it would be nice to have a dedicated web-note taking system (to complement Zotero’s functionality).

Enter WebNote. From ReadWriteWeb:

There are any number of services that offer the ability to annotate Web pages or share finds with friends. So why spend time on WebNotes? Because it seems awfully serious about providing the types of features that allow professional researchers to do online research – and only those features.

Anyone who has spent a great deal of time doing research by sifting through printed materials will immediately notice that WebNotes offers the two most critical research tools for any bookworm: sticky notes and a highlighter. But it also offers a filing system that allows users to categorize notes and pages under topical areas, as well as the option to share your findings with others.

Read the whole thing for a full review and list of features. I have been initially impressed with the software, which runs as a plugin for your web browser.

The service is still in private beta, so you will have to request an invite. I have 10 invite codes available, so if you want one, request it in the comments or email me at tommy@nerdlets.org.

Dec 102008
 

Here is a compiled list of books available online (from a variety of sources) for free, all relating to Biblical Studies. There are a bunch of winners on this list.

Oh, and don’t forget to search the Internet Archive for more.

 

In the course of preparing material for New Testament Introduction I needed to track down a quote from Papias (I am making a concerted effort to check all primary sources in so far as I am able). The result: I am increasingly impressed by the Internet Archive. Not only did they actually have Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History availabled for download, they also had it in multiple formats. And the PDF scans are searchable, which means that I could search for, highlight, and copy/paste the required text straight into my slides. As a cherry on top: the search results are tagged with faux post-it-notes, just like in real life! Powerful stuff.

 

For those of you who have not yet discovered the internet archive, now is a good time. In addition to public domain books, the archive includes a lot of free and legal live concert (bands that want to be included send a statement to the archive, which is on file for legal purposes). As a Béla Fleck fan, this is good news for me, as the ‘tones have a liberal sharing policy.

The Live Music Archive now also includes streaming.

So why not have a taste? Here’s the Flecktones at Planting Fields Arboretum in 2002:

And, while not the best recording, here’s a local show at the Mann Center last month:

 

Check out this list of handy websites for writers. Here are a couple that I have found particularly useful:

SparkNotes Ultimate Style. The web’s ultimate guide to grammar provides a searchable database of topics and an easy-to-search A-Z list of common questions.

MIT OpenCourseWare. MIT offers dozens of free writing courses through their OpenCourseWare program. Course topics include short story writing, fiction writing, expository writing, technical writing, essay writing and poetry.

Also be sure to check out the Internet Archive, which contains a ton of resources in the public domain. It is a great place to look for old books, lectures, etc. And while your browsing, you can download live music (or go here, particularly if you like bluegrass or the Grateful Dead)!

You will need a good Bittorrent Client to download large items from the Internet Archive.

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