Guest post by Elizabeth Simmons, Graduate Academic Assistant, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office
You’ve probably heard about Amazon’s new service that offers monthly subscribers unlimited access to eBooks on their Kindles. Well, guess what? There are plenty of free, open access eBooks available online—you just have to know where to look!
Project Gutenberg is an amazing resource, with more than 45,000 free e-books available to everyone, anywhere, including many that you can download. Browse their list of Partners, Affiliates, and Resources for even more free e-books. Other resources include the Internet Archive and Open Library and Google Books.
UBC has eBooks too! Find them in the Library’s catalogue at: http://resources.library.ubc.ca/. Click on “More Options” and you’ll be given the chance to limit search results to eBooks that are “Open Access for Everyone.” When limiting your search to eBooks available only to UBC faculty, staff, and students, you’ll gain access to a plethora of other eBooks.
Members of the UBC community are actively supporting open scholarship initiatives in the library and beyond, with the goal of “encouraging unrestricted access to research and scholarly publishing.” Learn more about them at UBC: http://open.ubc.ca/access/. And, don’t miss Open UBC Week 2014 on October 28th & 29th, featuring open lectures, information sessions, workshops, and more!
Did You Know?
“The University creates and advances knowledge and understanding, and improves the quality of life through the discovery, dissemination, and application of research within and across disciplines”. – From UBC’s Research Excellence – Strategic Priorities
Above image is courtesy of Pixabay