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National Academies Release Over 4,000 Free Science Books

Posted by Soulskill on from the price-is-right dept.

Shipud writes "The National Academies Press are offering all their books for free in PDF format. These are all the publications of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. Lots of great stuff there, and now for free."

7 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Are any of these actually useful? by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Funny

    ohhh, poor baby. So they don't have "The Idiots Guide to Mathematics" for you?

    Looks like the idiot's guide to not being a douche wasn't available either. :-\

    --
    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  2. Not exactly "free". by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Informative

    This isn't "Free as in Freedom" it's "Free as in Promotional".

    FTFA:

    Printed books will continue to be available for purchase through the NAP website and traditional channels. The free PDFs are available exclusively from the NAP’s website, http://www.nap.edu/, and remain subject to copyright laws. PDF versions exist for the vast majority of NAP books. Exceptions include some books that were published before the advent of PDFs; books from the Joseph Henry Press imprint; and in cases where contractually prohibited, such as reference books in the Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals series.

    So, you can download them to your computer, but you can't (legally) make a copy for your friend... This isn't the free as in "land of the free" that I grew up learning about... seems like a trap to me. "How did you know that without ever buying our book or downloading our PDF? You must be a sea faring rapist and murderous theif!"

    Let me know when it's released under a CC license, then I'll think about downloading it.

    1. Re:Not exactly "free". by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      At what point did knowing what recommendations are being made to congress become useless for the general public? Is the public supposed to just let the government do what it does, and never stop to take a look at what their congressmen are being told or what they are doing?

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:Not exactly "free". by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I did. Lost Crops of Africa vol 1-3 and Lost Crops of the Incas. Informative, although definitely a narrow topic. When you think science books you think more like textbooks with broad overviews and lots of information, which these certainty are not. If you're deep into a specific area, some of these will be useful. If you're just some normal person looking to learn more about something,well, these aren't exactly Light and Matter. I found a number of things on genetic engineering next to them, but skimming them, these are scientific, and they're books, but I wouldn't exactly call them science books, more like reports on the state of the science and policy ideas & suggestions than anything. I can see how these would be useless to the average reader.

    3. Re:Not exactly "free". by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I wouldn't exactly call them science books

      They said "science books", not "popular science books".

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  3. This gives more citations, - i.e. it's a win-win! by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This gives more citations, - i.e. it's a win-win!

    What do you cite if you're on a tight budget? The free stuff, not necessarily the most "relevant" stuff (said the cynic, in me, too); here, the relevant stuff may be cited in the free stuff, so why not, the logical chain is there.

  4. Re:Are any of these actually useful? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Keep in mind that the NRC is charged with doing research for congress; hence, most of what they put out is related to policy issues that were being debated at the time when the study was made. That being said, you can get some insight into how congressmen might be thinking about our nation's policy issues by reading NRC reports.

    --
    Palm trees and 8