The
various e-book formats
The text-only
"e-books" that you download onto your PC or Mac are available
for free (or at very low cost) from many sources and in several standard
formats. You get the complete text of the book (extracted using Optical Character Recognition) but not the images. Text-only e-books are well-suited for use while traveling with a laptop on a train or
plane. Text-only e-books will be a boon to recreational readers,
but cannot provide the aesthetic experience an imaged book can.
Imaged
books on CD are our interest here
Many
individuals and small companies have become providers of
"e-books" on CD. Using images of the original
book, maps, and illustrations, they hope to provide the CD user with an
experience that approximates the "feel" of reading an old
book. Readers and researchers can enjoy viewing the antique
typesetting, the wood and steel engravings, and the period maps of a
book otherwise found only by visiting a university reference section or
a rare book room.
Some
providers prefer the universal .pdf-file format, which requires
installation of Acrobat Reader. This format produces nearly identical experiences
for all users, and it provides a built-in search capability. A disadvantage of .pdf format is that the images are not easily extracted for use in other computer applications, such as a word processing program or a genealogy database program.
Like
SharingHistory.com, many providers set up the book images and text as HTML
webs. HTML is flexible and can provide an efficient and attractive
experience for the CD user. HTML has the minor disadvantage of producing slightly different
results on each combination of web browser and computer platform.
We
have seen e-book products ranging from excellent and poor in both
formats. You will generally not have a choice of format when seeking
a particular book, so you can expect some widely varied
"reading" experiences as you add e-books to your CD
library.
SharingHistory.com makes its CDs as eye-pleasing and easy to use as we can. Our CDs allow you to search the entire text of the book using the "Find" function of your web browser. We hope you'll enjoy our BookWebCDs, and that you will let know how we can improve our products.
Internet
Resources - Books
Below
are some websites you should visit if you are looking for an imaged
book.
Google Book Search (beta) provides access to page images and excerpts from an ever-increasing number of books.
Digital Book Index
- My favorite directory of digital books.
Books-On-Line -
Another good directory of digital books.
Making of America (at Cornell University) and
Making of America (at the University of
Michigan). - These are the premier libraries of free on-line HTML
books and periodicals from the mid- and late-19th century. (University of
Michigan is also contributing to the Text Creation Partnership, including the subscription resource: Early English Books Online.)
American Memory at The Library of Congress
- "American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections."
American Memory includes a single
search portal to the Making of America sites.
Many of the Maps, Motion Pictures, Photos & Prints, Sound Recordings listed at the
Collection Finder have been
copied onto CDs and are for sale on ebay.com, by US
Historical Archive and others.
Recommended at American Memory:
Mapping the National
Parks
Panoramic
(city) Maps 1847-1929
Railroad Maps, 1828-1900.
Project Gutenberg (download text-only eBooks) - "The Internet's oldest producer of FREE electronic books." From the same provider: The Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts is a collection of public domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western philosophy.
NYPL Digital Gallery - Provides access to over 450,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.
Early Canadiana Online - Provides access to books and pamphlets focusing on Canadian English literature, women's history, native studies, history of French Canada, 19th century French Canadian literature. It is a digital library containing 1,966,629 pages in 13,505 volumes.
Internet
Resources - Maps and Photographs
California Heritage Collection -
"An online archive of more than 30,000 images illustrating California's history and culture, from the collections of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley."
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
- "... has over 10,000 maps online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia and Africa are also represented. Collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall,
children's and manuscript maps."
Links
to other CD sellers
Some
other CD sellers are listed below (with no endorsement, express or
implied):
GenealogyCDs.com
(Acrobat) - "UNITED STATES: Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, Ohio, Washington DC, New York, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Pennsylvania State/County History Series; OTHER TOPICS: Homesteading."
History's Imprints
(HTML) - "From the mid 1870's to the early 1890's lithographers Glaser & Frey of Germany artfully created 'view books' of the scenes depicted in these types of photographs. These books were published by several American companies, and have proven to be a significant pictorial source for American history."
The History Broker
(HTML) - "African American History, Civil War History; Genealogy & Family History; History Of Agriculture; History Of Art And Religion; History Of Literature; History Of Music; History Of Photography; Maps & Atlases; Military History; Natural History; Railroad & Transportation; Great Reference Books; Science & Medicine; Sports; State & Local
History; Travel & Exploration; Women's History; Western History."
The Golden Age Archives
(HTML) - "African American History; Art, Fashion; Children's Literature; Comics; Entertainment History; Historical Americana; History Of The Occult; Maps, Atlases & Travel; Military History; Photo-Illustrated; Photography, Motion Picture, Sound Recording; Reference & Collecting; Religion; Science, Invention, & Technology History; Special Interest; Sports History; Trade Catalogs; Travels And Voyages; Stereoviews."
Link
Revisions and Additions
Please contact us with
your suggested additions to this links page, and if you find any needed
revisions.
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