Top 3 Free Ebook Websites for Education

There are now many fabulous, free ebook resources on the web. Three of the best sites are Project Gutenberg, Google Book Search and the World Public Library. These three resources literally include more books than it is possible to read in a lifetime, providing a free educational resource that is a treasure-trove for teachers, parents and students. They are especially good at providing open access to a vast number of classic authors and their works.

1. Project Gutenberg - www.gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg was begun in 1971. Its philosophy and goal is to "make information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search." The US Gutenberg site provides over 30,000 public-domain books in multiple computer formats for free use. Partner sites in other countries provide a further 100,000 ebooks. The collection includes a large number of books and authors from classic literature, including Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shakespeare, Poe, Swift, Conrad, and Defoe to name just a few. The texts are provided in multiple formats including HTML, plain text, EPUB and mobipocket and are free to download. The site is easy to search and use.

Upside: Completely free to access; ebooks are in formats that can modified, in whole or in part.
Downside: Collection is limited to only works that have entered into the public domain; not in PDF format (however, see World Public Library below)

A good place to get started is the Gutenberg Top 100. It is easy to search from every page for Author or Title Words.

2. Google Book Search - books.google.com

Started in 2004 with the goal of making out-of-print books searchable through Google, the searchable electronic catalogue now exceeds 7 million books. The vast majority are still subject to copyright and so are limited to partial view access only, and no downloading is permitted. Still, over a million books that are in the public domain or out-of-copyright are available to download in PDF format. The Google project has been somewhat controversial; read more about the Google Books on Wikipedia.

Upside: Large number of titles and good search tool
Downside: Only available in a single format; only out-of-print items are free

To find free ebooks, go to advanced search options and select the "public domain only" and "full text" options to access the full-length books.

3. World Public Library - worldlibrary.net

The World Public Library is an association of groups world-wide dedicated to disseminating "classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages." Begun in 1996, it now has access to over 750,000 titles available for download in the PDF format, including many of the Project Gutenberg's collection. The ebooks are free; however, it is not free to access the full collection, costing around $9 for a one-year membership.

http://worldlibrary.net/Join.htm

Upside: Wide selection, including reference ebooks and audio
Downside: Paid membership required for access to many items; only available in PDF format

Additional Resources

Another perspective on free ebook sites can be found at Free Technology For Teachers by Richard Byrne.