TA Library

Books in the public domain are generally those published before 1923. Think classics like Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, Cicero, etc. as well as a wealth of primary and secondary sources for the humanities. There are many sources for public domain books. The best places to start are: Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ The oldest source for public domain books on the internet, Project Gutenberg has been transcribing and digitizing books since 1971. “Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.” Google Books: http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search (be sure to click the button for “full view” to see free books) Google Books offers both free and commercial eBooks. Like Project Gutenberg, the free books were generally printed before 1923. BE CAREFUL- many people are “re-publishing” books that are in the public domain and charging for them! Don’t pay money for Treasure Island, The Three Musketteers or the like! If you are looking for a novel, you might want to start with the current top free Google eBooks. Google Books is also an excellent source for pre-1923 non-fiction books that you can use as sources in research papers. You must do a specialized search to weed out the books that cost money as shown below:

FollettShelf: https://wbb63782.follettshelf.com/ FollettShelf includes fiction, non-fiction & audiobooks that can be downloaded and used offline. These books can be accessed by using a username composed of your firstnamelastname and a password that is the same as your library number. Be sure you use your full first name and not a nickname! FollettShelf books can be read on the web or by using the Brytewave K-12 app for Android and iOS. Don’t hesitate to contact us for help! Directions for using Follettshelf can be found on the site. Please let the library know if you have any troubles! Gale Virtual Reference Library The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides eReference books that can be accessed by many students at once. This site is an excellent place to use when doing research on a specific topic. Please see a librarian for hints on how to be a power user! The Thetford Library Federation The Thetford Library Federation, through Latham Library, offers access to even more eBooks & eAudio. Follow the directions on the linked page to access them & be sure to ask if you have questions.