« A Flaw Could Cause Problems for Google Desktop Users Who Use Internet Explorer | Main | Millions of eBay Items Now Searchable on MSN Shopping »

December 2, 2005

Public Domain Books: More than 25,000 Full Text Books in a Single Database

Talk about online books seem to be a very frequent topic of conversation in the search world today. In the past few weeks we've not only posted about the latest with Google Book Search/Google Library Project, the Open Content Alliance, and new stuff coming from Amazon and others.

I've also provided overviews of both ebrary and NetLibrary that I hope you take a look at. But why another book post?

I once again want to mention and incredible browsable and searchable database, The Online Books Page, of books in the public domain (including Project Gutenberg materials) that's been edited by John Mark Ockerbloom since 1993. The OBP currently lists more than 25,000 titles.

Listings can be searched or browsed by authors, titles, an subjects.

The amount of material added on a daily basis is quite amazing. When does John sleep? An RSS feed of new listings is also available.

Finally, John mentions that he is adding some public domain books from Google Book Search. He has also added the "first demo batch" of books from the Open Library, sponsored by the Open Content Alliance.

When I'm asked to name some of the most impressive tools on the open web, the OBP is consistently near the top of the list.

Posted by Gary Price at December 2, 2005 10:26 PM