This website provides links to 9,278 free, downloadable ebooks. Books are organized by broad categories such as Business & Investing and subcategories such as Accounting, Finance, and Marketing. Links to the appropriate websites are provided. As described on the site, “E-Books Directory is a daily growing list of freely downloadable ebooks, documents and lecture notes found all over the internet.” At present, the site includes over “9124 free e-books in 663 categories.”
Type of Material:
Collection
Recommended Uses:
This website could be used by anyone, inside or outside of academia, to locate free books that might be of use to them. Certainly educators could search for free books to utilize in their classes. This is of great importance given the escalating prices of textbooks.
Technical Requirements:
Basic web browsing capabilities are necessary. Books are available in various formats with the most common being a pdf file.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The purpose of this site is simply to provide free text-based resources in a wide variety of interests and for multiple age-groups. There are no learning goals attached to this material.
Target Student Population:
There is no true target student population given the nature of this material. However, it could be used by educators at any level to locate appropriate free books.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Due to the availability of resources ranging in all skills levels, no specific prerequisite skills are required.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The collection offers a broad-based selection of texts in multiple interest areas. All information is freely available, and downloadable features appear to be active. The information, at least in several business marketing section, appears relevant and timely, with publication dates mostly in the late 2000s. Most publications noted by this reviewer are fairly reasonable page-wise, making these ideal supplements to course content. This website helps users find a wide variety of books. It is well-organized.
Concerns:
Occasionally, the user finds a bad link and is unable to access a book. Also, every book website has different terms and conditions attached to the download. For instance, one book placed no restrictions on the download while another book required the user to share the book via social media before accessing the download. And yet another required registration. Although there are some texts that are exercise-based, most content is book-like in nature, and therefore requires an additional assignment or context for inclusion in coursework. Additionally, the titles are only reviewed by number of views, but not evaluated on content or independently reviewed to verify accuracy. While the quality seems appropriate at the outset, each title bears further reflection by the intended user.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Any website that links users to free books is valuable. This website is one of the better ones that this reviewer has seen, especially when it comes to breadth and depth of topics. Since the material is free, the site lends itself to an affordable alternative for students. Some titles are comprehensive texts, while others delve more into specific areas, affording a number of opportunities to instructors for use. The available categories are numerous, ranging from more broad-based content to more detailed, and due to the easy portability of the material, allows for quick learning.
Concerns:
The quality of the free books varies. The user needs to assess the quality and currency himself/herself. Book reviews by previous users are not available to help with this assessment. As classroom support, the material is not always independently reviewed, and therefore needs concentrated preview prior to use. Most resources do not have additional instructor supplements, and will require additional time in preparation, use, testing, etc.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The website is easy to navigate. The headings, subheadings and search function (via Google custom search) are appropriate and user-friendly. The categories are easily organized in multiple ways, enabling the user to locate interests easily. The speed of download appears to be quick, allowing for instantaneous access to material.
Concerns:
Some text links require additional information to be submitted prior to download, which may not preferable to all users. All links tested were accessible, however if used for classroom purposes, instructors would need to monitor this. With so much content, bad links do exist. Also, the quality of the individual book pages varies greatly.
Creative Commons:
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