A few months ago my search for an old book from the 1950’s lead me to the discovery of a treasure store of books both new and old! Please let me share this exciting FREE discovery that YOU can use! 

One of the hundreds of illustrations from the book "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe.

Please note: all images in this article are screen shots from the free site openlibrary.org

 I volunteer as a teacher of English as a second language to young children with a focus not only on oral communication but also on reading and writing skills. A few months ago I was faced with the challenge of helping a young girl who was diagnosed as being dyslexic. In my search for a book that we could read together I learned that the old 1950’s series of “Dick and Jane” that I used as a kid were highly recommended because of being mostly monosyllabic and very repetitive in their use of principle words. 

While trying to locate a copy of one of those books I came across an unbelievable site called Open Library where I was able to borrow a book electronically and use it for my classes. All of this for FREE!

 At Open Library there are well over a million books that you can read for free!

My second experience with this site came just last night. My son expressed to me his interest in reading the Daniel Defoe classic Robinson Crusoe. We had a copy of it in Italian but since he wanted to read it in English I was able to locate a masterpiece of a copy at openlibrary.org. This copy has fabulous etchings and art work that are delightful to both page through and read!  

Take a Look at Some of The Intricate Artwork in This Digital Copy of Robinson Crusoe!

These pages are a delight both to read and to look at! With the built in enlargement feature you can have a good look.

The pages can be viewed on your Kindle, tablet or computer as single, double or mosaic as shown above.

What is Open Library? Please have a Look at these quotes from their site:    

 “Our goal is to provide a page on the web for every book ever published. At its heart, Open Library is a catalog. The project began in November 2007 and has been inhaling catalog records from some of the biggest libraries in the world ever since. We have well over 20 million edition records online, provide access to 1.7 million scanned versions of books, and link to external sources like WorldCat and Amazon when we can. The secondary goal is to get you as close to the actual document you're looking for as we can, whether that is a scanned version courtesy of the Internet Archive, or a link to Powell's where you can purchase your own copy. 

  How is the Open Library different from Project Gutenberg?   “Project Gutenberg" is a place to download and read thousands of free eBooks. Open Library's goal is to list every book -- whether in-print or out-of-print, available at a bookstore or a library, scanned or typed in as text. In other words, we provide access to all of Project Gutenberg's books but we have hundreds of thousands of others as well.”  

  Some Features of Open Library

•   Some books are available to be read on-line or downloaded as a PDF, E pub or even transferred to a Kindle device.  
•   There is a feature to have all of the e book format material read for you but the sight also has many books available in the DAISY format. The Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) format is a method for creating digital talking books for people who wish to hear and to navigate written material presented  audibly. DAISY is a help for individuals with "print disabilities," including blindness, impaired vision, and dyslexia.   
•   Books are available in many languages including: German, Italian Chinese, Arabic, French etc…   A sample search that I conducted for an Agatha Chrisite book bore over 1ooo results in at least 15 languages!  

Check Out The Screen Shot  Below of a Search That I Did For a Book By Agatha Christie. There Are More Than 1000 Results in at Least 15 Languages!

  The Artwork of Old Books! 

  Please have a look at some sample pages from this old book from “History of Ancient Art” from 1882. The artwork is a delight to see preserved in this digital form!    

This book is from 1882. It's exciting to look at these old books!

The line drawings are fantastic! 

   It's a pleasure to "leaf" through a work of art like this without the worry of damaging the book!

The time spent on creating these old books is a wonder!

 I highly recommend that you head over to openlibrary.org and have a look for yourself. There is a whole world of treasures for you to discover!   You can read and examine both new and old books in many different languages. ENJOY! 

  Until next time,  

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)