There are now multiple avenues to access textbooks at no cost. Some are older versions, some have been written specifically using licences allowing free access such as Creative Commons and GNU Free Documentation. It is simply a matter of knowing where to look.

Included in these listings are both Free Online, and Free Downloadable texts in various formats e.g. ebooks, PDF, Word, … . In most cases, textbooks available for purchase at major bookstores Are Not Included. Listed books are at Tertiary level unless otherwise indicated.

They are listed under Major Learning Areas, then Specific Areas within these. The Other Subjects section includes all not within listed major learning areas. Some areas such as Mathematics, Sciences and Computing have significantly larger offerings.

This page looks at Language, Science, Social Sciences, Other Subjects and Preprints.

The First Page looks at major sources for free textbook collections and textbooks for Education, Mathematics and Technology & Computing.

We have tried to ensure those included are of a high standard.

We continually add to the information available and are willing to consider suggested inclusions.

No Outright Recommendation is given for any textbook. Individuals must make their own decision.

Language

Links to multiple texts. These may also include other documentation such as lecture notes and tutorials.

Australian Literature

• Australian Literary and Historical Texts
  ‘Welcome to the SETIS collection of more than 300 Australian literary and historical texts’.
• Project Gutenberg Library of Australiana
  ‘Australian writers, works about Australia and works which may be of interest to Australians’.

General Language

• Bibliomania
  Study guides and links to novels by specified authors. For example, Charles Dickens has brief notes and links to 18 novels, 4 study guides and a set of further notes.
• Bob Jensen’s Links to Electronic Literature
  Links in directories including textbooks, other books and authors, multimedia, journals and electronic books.
• Code of the Debater
  An ebook on the skills and techniques of debating. No longer free.
• FreeBooknotes
  ‘Book notes, chapter summaries, literature notes and study guides for 250+ books’.
• Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
  ‘Interactive, menu-driven, online writer’s guide and handbook written in HTML and distributed freely over the WWW. It uses hypertext structure to create a web of links and text frames that you can navigate quickly and easily by clicking your desired choice. Paradigm is intended to be useful for all writers, from inexperienced to advanced’.
• Read Print
  Primarily Literature, covering most of the famous classical authors from Louisa M. Alcott to William Butler Yeats. Other authors include Charles Darwin and Niccolo Machiavelli and links to articles related to the area.

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Science

Biology

• 2020ok Biological Sciences
  Select from among the 12 sub-categories provided.
• An On-Line Biology Book
  59 chapters based on ‘modified lecture outlines I have developed’.
• Kimball’s Biology Pages
  ‘An online biology textbook. A disadvantage of printed textbooks is the inevitable delay between the time that new advances in biology are reported and the time that they can become incorporated in a printed book [often several years]. Material here can be updated promptly. Although some of this information has been drawn from the sixth edition of the author’s text Biology published in 1994 by Wm. C. Brown, every effort has been made to adapt the material to the opportunities provided by an online text’.
• MIT Biology Hypertextbook
• The Online Books Page
  Biology texts from many sources.

Botany

• Botanical Dermatology
  ‘This material is targeted to an audience of trained clinical dermatologists’. Note the specific warning provided on the home page.
• Study Guide to the Science of Botany
  From Wikibooks.

Chemistry

• 2020ok Chemistry
  Select from among the 8 sub-categories provided.
• CHEMystery
  ‘A virtual chemistry textbook to provide an interactive guide for high school chemistry students. In addition, CHEMystery allows you to further expand your chemistry knowledge by letting you interact with other Internet resources on the World Wide Web’. Some areas have audio.
• The Basics of NMR
  Joseph P. Hornak. 11 chapters from The Mathematics of NMR to Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques, Glossary, List of Symbols, References, Usage Statistics and more. 2002

Genetics

• Genes & Disease
  18 sections of a book on different diseases and the relationship of gene science to them. Available in PDF format.
• Genes, Technology and Policy
  ‘This primer discusses the science and policy issues surrounding the use of modern biotechnology. It provides a snapshot of its benefits as well as concerns regarding its potential negative impact on the environment and on human health’.
• Human Genetics
  Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois.

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Oceanography

• An Introduction to Physical Oceanography
  Matthias Tomczak, Flinders University, South Australia. ‘Based on my lecture notes for the physical oceanography part of the First Year undergraduate topic Marine Sciences 1 at the Flinders University of South Australia. They constitute an elementary text but are not a substitute for a proper textbook’.
• Introduction to Physical Oceanography
  Robert R. Stewart, Texas A & M University. 17 Chapters and references. Also a PDF version.
• Oceanography in the 21st Century : Our Ocean Planet
  ‘A web-based oceanography textbook. Click on the header to go to the table of contents’.

Physics

• A Radically Modern Approach to Introductory Physics
  2004 edition. Covers information in chapters. GNU Free Documentation License. Either Zip or PDF files.
• Calculus-Based Physics
  ‘Introductory physics textbook designed for use in the two-semester introductory physics course typically taken by science and engineering students’. Creative Commons.
• Conceptual Physics [Crowell]
  View online or download as one large PDF file.
• Light and Matter
  Free, downloadable books on physics. Free software, Mac as well as PC. An older version is available from lulu.com.
• General Relativity
  ‘This a textbook on general relativity for upper-division undergraduates majoring in physics, at roughly the same level as Rindler’s Essential Relativity or Hartle’s Gravity. The book is meant to be especially well adapted for self-study, and answers are given in the back of the book for almost all the problems’. Available online or as a PDF download.
• Online Physics Textbooks
  Topics from Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Space Physics.
• Physics231
  Extensive listing of information in optics and light areas.
• Physics Books Online
  Well annotated links to a range of Free online Physics texts or groups of texts.
• Physics eBooks
  ‘This section contains free e-books and guides on Physics; some of the resources in this section can be viewed online and some of them can be downloaded’.
• Space Physics Textbook
  Extensive chapters form this online textbook from a Finnish university. In English.
• Wikibooks : Physics Bookshelf
  ‘The open-content textbooks collection’. Alphabetical listing, by levels [middle school to postgraduate] and external links.

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Social Sciences

Economics

• A Pedestrian’s Guide to the Economy
  ‘A handy reference source, it provides answers to many of the most asked, a few of the least asked, and some of the never asked questions about the economy’.
• Basic Microeconomics
  ‘Textbook, accompanied by online Flash and QuickTime tutorials, interactive spreadsheet, and PowerPoint slides’.
• CyberEconomics
  ‘Textbook for introductory economics. CyberEconomics is an easy-to-read approach to economics with a variety of interactive problems and questions’.
• Free Business Textbooks Internet Library
  Accounting, Economics, Finance, Marketing and Mathematics.
• Online Economics Textbooks
  Covers ‘General Economics’, ‘Introductory Economics’, ‘Macroeconomics’, ‘Microeconomics’, ‘Econometrics’, and a number of other specific aspects.
• The Library of Economics & Liberty
  Extensive section of online books from John Baden to Philip H. Wickstead.

Geology

• An Introduction To Geology
  ‘To effectively introduce core concepts, this first-year survey text shifts the focus from learning terminology to understanding and observing the range of earth’s geologic processes’.
• Fundamentals of Structural Geology
  Provided as a resource link to the textbook of the same name.

History

• Australian Literary and Historical Texts
  ‘Welcome to the SETIS collection of more than 300 Australian literary and historical texts. This page includes a listing in alphabetical order by author’s name, as well as keyword search and browse by category pages’. Includes explorer’s journals and more.
• Manners, Custom and Dress …
  During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period. Project Gutenberg.
• The Historical Text Archive
  70 ebooks in directories from Africa to World War II’.
• The Internet History Sourcebooks Project
  ‘A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly [without advertising or excessive layout] for educational use’.

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Other Subjects

Accountancy

• Bookboon - Accounting
  ‘In these Free textbooks you can read about financial accounting, measurements of profits, tangible and intangible assets and cash flow review’. Links to other subject listings. You can also watch What is accounting ? : Accounting classes online here.
• Financial Accounting
  Multiple sections and sub-sections. PDF format.
• Principles of Accounting
  ‘This principles of accounting website provides a Free comprehensive textbook and learning centre. Both financial accounting and managerial accounting topics are covered’.

Art

• Art, Design & Visual Thinking
  ‘Interactive Textbook’ covering all aspects of art including elements, principles, creativity, media and more.
• Art History
  Preface and 9 chapters. From Wikibooks.
• Out of Eden : Essays on Modern Art
  Introduction, 12 chapters and selected bibliography. Chapters include Killing Moonlight : The Futurists, Matisse’s Broken Circle and Notes on Photography.

Medicine

• Cardiac Surgery in the Adult
  ‘Online version of Cardiac Surgery in the Adult. McGraw-Hill is providing the electronic version of this book to facilitate education and scholarly research’.
• Endocrinology
  An Integrated Approach. ‘Written to meet the requirements of today’s trainee doctors and the demands of an increasing number of degree courses in health and biomedical sciences, and allied subjects’.
• FreeBooks4Doctors
  600+ medical books available Free online. ‘FreeBooks4Doctors ! is dedicated to the promotion of Free access to medical books over the Internet’. Full text, many from recent years, in several languages.
• Free Medical Books
  Extensive listing broken into topics both general and specific, e.g. Anatomy, Dictionaries, Histology, Pharmacology, Virology, etc..
• Lippincott’s Cardiac Anaesthesia
  Access several full-text books, a video library, cases and a review.
  You now need to be able to log in to access this site.
• Major Themes in Anatomy and Physiology
  ‘This book is about human anatomy and physiology - the structure and function of the body. It is meant to provide you with a foundation for later study in pathology, health care, exercise physiology and other fields related to health and fitness’.
• Online Medical Textbooks
  Annotated links to ‘Online medical textbooks, online medical reference, general medical textbooks’.
• Pubmed Bookshelf
  ‘Bookshelf provides Free access to over 700 texts in life science and healthcare. A vital node in the data-rich resource network at NCBI, Bookshelf enables users to easily browse, retrieve, and read content, and spurs discovery of related information’.
• Student Bookworld
  ‘Free online medical textbooks and resources from Anaesthetics to Transfusion’. Links to a number of blogs.
• Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook
  ‘The goal of the Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook is to organise all internet resources on anaesthesia into one concise, textbook style website’.
• Welcome to eMedicine
  ‘The original open access comprehensive medical textbook for all clinical fields, with 10 000 Contributors, 59 Specialties, 6 500 Articles’.

Microbiology

• Biological E-books Online
  University of Pennsylvania.
• Medical Microbiology Textbook
• The Microbial World
  Introduction and 26 sections of the book - Through The Microscope : A Look at All Things Small. Use the TOC link at the top of the page.
• Microbiology Webbed Out
  Major areas with sub-areas for each. Extensive notes and information. Simple to follow and use.
• Text Book Of Microbiology
  P C Trivedi. ‘The contents of the present book have been divided into 17 chapters covering basic studies of microorganisms excluding their application part’.

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Music

• Fundamentals of Music
  ‘A complete course in music and music theory. The textbook is available online and completely Free of charge’.
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera
  Provides a key to vocal compasses, various abbreviations and the dictionary itself. Via Questia.

Other Languages & ESL

• ESL : Online Textbooks
  From general to very specific, beginning courses to readers. Some require freely available plug-ins such as Flash.
• Foreign Languages & Literatures
  Courseware from MIT. Select from the listings for graduate and undergraduate levels.
• Teaching English with Information Technology [2005]
  11 chapters and four appendices covering all aspects of this. Click on Preview, then Contents.
• Tell Me More
  ‘This is a complete online version of an English textbook written for speakers of Korean. Most of the textbook can be also used by non-Korean speakers. Andrew Finch and Hyun Tae-duck’. 12 chapters [12 each for students and for teachers].

Pharmacology

• A First Course in Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics
  Accessible in sections online. Movement from page to page available.
• Clinical Pharmacology
  Concepts, drug therapy in the elderly, pharmacodynamics and pharmakinetics.

Psychology

• Early Childhood Development and Learning
  New Knowledge for Policy. Option to skim chapters or read each fully online.
• Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
  Online version. Richard J Heuer Jr. Covers thinking, perception and memory. CIA published

Statistics

• Concepts and Applications of Inferential Statistics
  ‘A Free, full-length, and occasionally interactive statistics textbook’.
• Elementary Concepts in Statistics
  ‘Electronic Textbook begins with an overview of the relevant elementary [pivotal] concepts and continues with a more in depth exploration of specific areas of statistics, organized by modules, accessible by buttons, representing classes of analytic techniques. A glossary of statistical terms and a list of references for further study are included’.
• HyperStat Online Statistics Textbook
  18 chapters covering all basic topics, a glossary, financial analysis tools, exercises and problems, humour and more.
• Introductory Statistics
  ‘Revised and expanded edition is designed to motivate and challenge students without a strong mathematics background. Filled with real-world examples, step-by-step explanations, quality exercise sets that link applications to concepts and procedures, and sound pedagogy, this text makes statistics interesting and accessible’.
• StatNotes - Online Textbook
  Main and Additional Topics. Note the copyright statement on the home page.

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Preprints

‘A preprint is a draft of a scientific paper that has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal’. [Wikipedia].

• arXiv.org
  ‘Open access to 648 148 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics’. From Cornell University Library.
• Astronomy Preprints & Abstracts
• CERN Document Server
  ‘Over 1 000 000 bibliographic records of interest to people working in particle physics and related areas. Covers preprint, articles, books, journals, photographs, videos and much more’.
• Chemical Physics Preprint Database
  ‘A fully automated electronic archive and distribution server for the international theoretical chemistry community’.
• CKM Papers, Talks and Preprints
  Listed by sbject groupings.
• Design Theory Resource Server
  ‘Preprints and Research Reports. Click on the title to get the full article in PDF format’.
• EFDA-JET
  ‘Welcome to EFDA-JET Preprints and Conference Papers service’.
• E-print Network
  ‘A vast, integrated network of electronic scientific and technical information created by scientists and research engineers active in their respective fields, all full-text searchable. A gateway to over 34 000 websites and databases worldwide, containing over 5.5 million e-prints in basic and applied sciences’.
• Mathematics WWW Virtual Library
  List a range of archives under particular headings. Includes e-prints.
• MPress - MathNet.preprints
  ‘The Mathematics Preprint Search System. This is a searchable index of preprints from’ a range of listed sources.
• Preprints & Working Papers
  Stanford University listing. ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics; Chemistry; Computation and Language; Economics; Mathematics : General e-Print Archives, Subject-based Archives, Departmental or Institutional Archives; Nonlinear Sciences; Physics; Quantitative Biology’.
• Preprint Servers
  University of Wollongong Library. Links to directories as well as individual servers.
• STScI Preprints
  Use the search engine to access these.

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