online books

[george at library.caltech.edu]

Hoover Institution Books Online provides free access to PDFs of a number of
books <http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/books/>.  This continues
a very positive trend among scholarly publishers.  National Academy Press
<http://www.nap.edu/info/browse.htm> has been providing online editions for
several years.  When I wrote an Internet Review of the National Academy of
Sciences <http://www.bowdoin.edu/~samato/IRA/reviews/issues/nov96/nas.html>
6 years ago, there were already 900+ books available -- today it must be
upwards of 2000.  The Hoover Institution does not measure up to the standard
set by NAP, many of the titles listed on the page are not actually available
online.

Other noteworthy publishers:

University of California Press eScholarship Editions
<http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/> -- over 500 online editions

E-Editions - University of Nebraska Press
<http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/e_editions.html>

and from the commercial sector,

Baen Books <http://www.baen.com/library/>

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
Caltech, 1-43
Pasadena, CA  91125-4300
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681