Friday, January 15, 2016

Sometimes you can just download that book - Free cultural resources


Did you know that you can often find online PDF versions of books for free?  

 I recently found a great blogpost at OpenCulture.org pointing out that lots of places with large catalogs (especially museums) are scanning their collections and making them available for reading online.  For instance, check out MetPublications, the Metropolitan Museum's site offering “five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download, and/or search for free.”

 In particular, for SearchResearchers, note this:   


Clicking on the "Read online" link will take you to the full-view version of the book at Google Books.  (For example, here's that book, "Adorning the World: Art of the Marquesas Islands" as seen on Google Books.) 

These same folks previously offered 397 complete books free, including American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885–1915; Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Drawings from the Royal Library; and Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

 Since then they've grown the online collection to no fewer than 448 art catalogs and other books besides. Those are all available for free, along with the 400,000 free art images the museum put online last year.

 It's worth keeping your eyes open, just to keep track of what's available online.  
Other Links to Free Content from OpenCulture.org: 
800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices  (Epic of Gilgamesh; Beowulf...) 
at

5 comments:

  1. Ramon GonzalezJanuary 15, 2016 at 11:44 AM

    Thanks Dr. Russell. It is a great way to learn and know more in a super easy way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. remmijJanuary 15, 2016 at 3:05 PM

    good tip, thanks Capt. Dan…

    … coming full elliptical(s) with the 'MARQUESAS' theme:
    CSN&Y, Southern Cross - SRS 12/16/15
    Got out of town on a boat
    Goin' to Southern Islands
    Sailing a reach
    Before a followin' sea
    She was makin' for the trades
    On the outside
    And the downhill run
    To Papeete
    Off the wind on this heading
    Lie the Marquesas…

    Crosby Stills Nash - Southern Cross Lyrics |
    We got eighty feet of the waterline, Nicely making way

    nice flag
    wiki lowdown
    ⚓ to connect with Ramón's RLS| San Francisco/Treasure Island find & the book topic of the post… ⚓
    • IN THE SOUTH SEAS •
    BEING AN ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES AND
    OBSERVATIONS IN THE MARQUESAS, PAUMOTUS
    AND GILBERT ISLANDS IN THE COURSE OF
    TWO CRUSES, ON THE YACHT ‘CASCO’ (1888)
    AND THE SCHOONER ‘EQUATOR’ (1889)
    BY
    ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

    ⌘F [tattoo] and get 20 interesting results — worth noting that [tattooed] gives 12… tattoo alone is more inclusive.
    fwiw, [tat] will produce the 20 too. Very quick way to scan a topic…
    something to listen to while perusing the tat info:
    Mick & lads, 1981

    Irezumi
    covering the mudball
    and a few extraneous bits:
    ultraviolet radiation
    non Google alphabet that is quite Googley
    James Bay coastline|Akimiski Island
    very distinct url
    X
    ABC guide
    a chart - Goo & X (Replicant) are particularly notable
    bought Replicant stock, had hard time collecting dividends…
    one future — run hu_mon investor, ru…, never mind, it is down…

    ReplyDelete