FREE QUALITY RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS, ACADEMICS AND LIFELONG LEARNERS

1
FREE QUALITY RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS, ACADEMICS
AND LIFELONG LEARNERS

• Stephen Perry
• IRO for Central Africa
• Washington, D.C.
• 202-453-8295

2
THE FOUR REVOLUTIONS NOW ON THE INTERNET

• What are these four revolutions?

3
Four important revolutions taking place in the
Internet

• gt Free Databases of articles
• EX www.doaj.org
• gt Free Books
• EX http//demo.openlibrary.org
• gtBetter, More Precise Search Engines
  www.lii.org, www.ipl.org

4
And, the Fourth one

• gt Distance Education Sites Free Lecture Notes,
  Free Student Projects, Syllabus of Course
  contents, Student Papers, Exams, Answers to Exams
• gt Lectures available in audio, video or text
• Examples
• gtocw.mit.edu, open.yale.edu, youtube.com/ucberkele
  y

5
Google is NOT a Professional Search Engine, BUT,
if you going to use Google, use it well here are
some guides for using Google better

• GOOGLE Guides to using Google most efficiently
• http//www.blueroom.com/
• google/

6
http//www.blueroom.com/google
7
Google for Power Searchershttp//www.accreditedd
ldegrees.com/2008/google-for-librarians-50-tips-to
ols-and-resources-for-power-searching/
8
PART ONE Alternate Search Engines to Google
please give these a spin!

• These are fantastic for your research!

9
Here are some other quality Search Engines you
might find useful these all provide sites that
have been evaluated in advance by subject experts.

• One of my favorites is the Internet Public
  Library through the University of Michigan
  www.ipl.org

10
www.ipl.org Note the Reading Room Links on the
right hand side that give access to free
electronic books, journals and newspapers
11
Note that the IPL has a search engine
www.ipl.org
12
Librarians Index to the Internet www.lii.org has
a search engine, categories and a featured site.
13
Infomine tries to categorize the best of the Web
by Library of Congress Subject Headings
http//infomine.ucr.edu
14
Here are some subject headings for English
Language
15
Here are some free English Language dictionaries
identified through Infomine
16
Specialized Search Engine for Research Studies
OAISter www.oaister.org
17
Here is a sample search on Rwanda in OAISter
OAISter searches 20 million records and so
retrieves heavily specialized research studies,
all free
18
Another useful search engine is Virtual
Libraries, updated constantly www.vlib.org
19
Here is the Virtual Library for Engineering for
example www.vlib.org
20
Here are some useful directories of quality
information compiled by resource experts
http//library.sau.edu/bestinfo/alpha.htm
21
New York Public Library Linkshttp//www.nypl.org
/links/
22
Alcove 9 from the Library of Congress is a
directory of quality, free resources
www.loc.gov/rr/main/alcove9
23
Here is a listing of free reference sites chosen
by experts at the Library of Congress
http//www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html

24
Now that you know some alternative search engines
and a few directories for quality information,
where do you find free tutorials for more
information?
25
The SUNY ALBANY SITE in the previous slide
teaches skills how to search better, how to
evaluate what you find, and how to avoid
plagiarism

• The site address is http//library.albany.edu/use
  red/

26
Another tutorial teaching Information Literacy
skills is provided by the U of California,
Berkeley includes free handouts
http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int
ernet/FindInfo.html
27
A free dictionary in many languages is
http//www.wiktionary.org/
28
Speaking of Wikis, one which has scholarly
material, contributed only by experts is the new
Scholarpedia www.scholarpedia.org/
29
PART TWO FINDING FREE ONLINE BOOKS

• EXCELLENT, and LITTLE KNOWN SITES HERE

30
Now, lets look at the area of free books and how
to get them on the Internet

• One useful site is the University of California
  Press making available some 2000 free academic
  books on all topics http//content.cdlib.org/esch
  olarship/
• A Subject index may be found at
• http//www.escholarship.org/editions/index_subject
  s.html

31
University of California Free Academic Books
32
Another useful site is the University of
Pennsylvania Free Online Books
http//onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/lists.html
a browseable collection of over 30,000 books
33
WikiBooks just emerged as another source of
books, including educational textbooks
http//en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
34
Educational Textbooks may be found at
http//wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/open
_textbooks
35
The University of Virginia now has an E TEXT Page
at http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/
36
One can read scanned books at this site
http//demo.openlibrary.org/
37
Here is the actual scanned book from a real
library one can flip pages just like a real
book over a million books available in full text
format
38
Other sites where you can access full text books
free are

• Online Books through the Internet Public Library
  http//www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
  
• International Childrens Digital Literature, Full
  Text, in 20 Languages http//icdlbooks.org/
• Google Books http//books.google.com/
• Also see Google Scholar for information about
  books and authors http//scholar.google.com/
• Google Book Search http//www.google.com/books?h
  len
• Besides being able to search for actual
  books, this search also lets you find keywords
  and phrases that appear in books.

39
PART THREE FINDING FREE ONLINE ARTICLES AND
DATABASES

• Give these sites a try for finding articles, full
  text, online

40
How about free articles? Where can you access
these?

• One of the best new free sites is the DOAJ
  Directory of Open Access Journals at www.doaj.org
• Includes the full text of over 3,800 journals
  arranged by subject category.
• This is what the site looks like

41
DOAJ www.doaj.org
42
Here are journals in the category of literature
in DOAJ
43
And, here is a full text article from the journal
titled COMPOSITION
44
The full text all free!
45
Social Science Research Network www. ssrn.com

• Have to register first, but registration is free.
• The next few slides demonstrate SSRNs research
  capabilities SSRN covers papers given at
  International Conferences as well as published
  articles, many of these peer-reviewed.

46
More sites where one can retrieve full text
articles are below

• University Of Houston Libraries Scholarly
  Journals Distributed Via the World Wide Web
  http//info.lib.uh.edu/wj/webjour.html This
  directory provides links to established Web-based
  scholarly journals that offer access to English
  language article files without requiring user
  registration or fees.
• Free E-Journals Arranged By Subjects And Themes
  http//ejw.i8.com/ Includes the best web sites
  and free E-Journals in over 40 different academic
  disciplines, constantly updated.

47
(No Transcript)
48
Results of SSRN SEARCH ON GENDER STUDIES
49
FULLTEXT OF ONE OF THE ARTICLES
50
Other sites for full text articles are

• Gateway for Free Ejournals http//www.icast.org
  .in/ejournal/ejournal.php Free E-Journals
  http//www.e-journals.org
• Open Humanities Press http//www.openhumanities
  press.org/ Absolutely free access to scholarly
  EJournals such as Cosmos and History, Fast
  Capitalism, Film-Philosophy, Image and Narrative,
  and Postcolonial Texts.
• HighWire Press http//highwire.stanford.edu/
  HighWire recently loaded their 5 millionth
  article. A division of the Stanford University
  Libraries, HighWire Press hosts the largest
  repository of high impact, peer-reviewed content,
  with 1189 journals and 5,028,291 full text
  articles from over 140 scholarly publishers.
  HighWire-hosted publishers have collectively made
  2,014,513 articles free. With our partner
  publishers we produce 71 of the 200
  most-frequently-cited journals.

51
Also dont forget about the free reading room
from the Internet Public Library arranged by
broad topics http//www.ipl.org/div/serials/

52
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS FULL TEXT

• For serious research and research projects

53
If you want free access to theses and
dissertations, here are two excellent sites.

• Theses and Dissertations from the University of
  Maryland http//www.lib.umd.edu/drum
• Theses and Dissertations from MIT
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  http//dspace.mit.edu

54
Here is what the Maryland site looks like
55
Here is the actual full text of the dissertation,
all 549 pages, free!
56
Now that you know how to find free books and free
articles, want to know other secrets? This is
from the Sawyer Library at http//www.suffolk.edu/
sawlib/webcollect.htmother
57
Here are other sources for finding free valuable
publications. One is the Student Corner at
www.America.gov
58
The Student Corner site gives you access to free
books and free electronic journals in many
fields. America.gov offers free webchats and
articles of interest and the opportunity to share
your opinions with others. www.America.gov
59
Example of a free publication in Student Corner
Outline of American Literature See others below
60
America.gov also comes in Language Versions here
is the French version www.america.gov/fr/
61
Interested in American Studies? Here are two
great sites this is the American Memory Project
from the Library of Congress.
62
Cross Roads Project from Georgetown University
63
Here is their Encyclopedia of American Studies
64
URLs

• The American Memory Project of the Library of
  Congress contains millions of digitized documents
  in all formats and in all fields of study
  pertaining to American society and history
  http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
• The Crossroads Project at Georgetown may be found
  at
• http//crossroads.georgetown.edu/

65
Other free resources Biography.com Here is a
Bio of Abe Lincoln as one example
66
FREE VIDEOS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND TEACHING
RESOURCES FROM WWW.LEARNER.ORG
67
Where to find free videos explaining concepts in
detail? www.learner.org is a great resource.
68
Note this free English language program on
www.learner.org 15 free videos, completely
viewable
69
VoD means Video on Demand seeing videos requires
free registration entire video viewable
70
PART FOUR FREE DISTANCE EDUCATION RESOURCES FOR
YOUR INTELLECTUAL GROWTH AND FOR PROFESSORS TO
SEE HOW OTHERS HAVE APPROACHED A TOPIC.
71
Distance Education Sites great for Educational
Advisors and prospective students wanting to
explore what an American style Education is all
about
72
EXAMPLE OF MIT COURSES ON LITERATURE ALL FREE!
http//ocw.mit.edu
73
Here are free online class courses at Yale,
available for download courses are not for
credit. This is a class on the American Novel.
74
Note this course on Richard Wrights BLACK BOY
(and all other Yale Courses) is available for
download in video, audio and one can even print
out a transcript of the lecture
75
Another free and new site is Academic Earth
76
URLs for these and other resources are as follows

• Academic Earth http//www.academicearth.org/
• Yale University http//open.yale.edu (really
  excellent!)
• MIT University http//ocw.mit.edu
• Tufts University (see especially
  Medical/Dentistry online courses)
  http//ocw.tufts.edu
• University of California at Berkeley Video
  Courses of actual classes given at Berkeley
  http//www.youtube.com/ucberkeley
• Utah State University http//ocw.usu.edu
  (especially excellent for International
  Economics)
• Johns Hopkins University http//ocw.jhsph.edu/
• Notre Dame University http//ocw.nd.edu
• University of California, Irvine
  http//ocw.uci.edu
• OCW Consortium www.ocwconsortium.org Click on
  Members
• Open Educational Resources http//www.oercommon
  s.org/
• A clearinghouse of free teaching and learning
  resources from K-12 lesson plans to college
  curriculum.

77
Other resources to consult

• Check out IRO Steve Perrys Wiki for
  bibliographies in many subject areas, all
  updated. You can find for example bibliographies
  that go into greater depth on free resources and
  a complete listing of all Free IIP Resources and
  available language versions.
• Available at http//tinyurl.com/6dfaxn

78
THE END THANK YOU! ?

• IRC LUSAKA developed a WIKI at
• http//irclusakazam.pbwiki.com/
• This site has this Powerpoint and the Researchers
  Toolkit
• Let us know your feedback on this and other
  resources that are useful for your work.