|
| Being able to peek inside textbooks on the Web is not a new thing. Amazon.com, for example, has been using a Look Inside feature for a number of years. This is a clever Web version of being able browsing books at a brick-and-mortar retail bookstore. "Browse before buying," it makes good business sense. Google, however, has carried the idea to a much higher level. The objective of Google Books is to provide online copies of every book that has ever been printed. And in a landmark legal case, Google won a compromise that allows the search giant to provide access to books that are still under copyright�or at least portions of them. And the portions the publishers allow far exceeds the content provided in the usual Look Inside features. This is where Free-Ed.Net comes in. Many of the study programs at Free-Ed.Net make liberal use of the Google Preview Books. This figure shows a portion of a biology study programs. You can select which textbook you want to browse, and the pages appear in a browsable form directly below the selection bar. This feature provides access to some of the finest and most authoritative sources of trade, career, and academic literature that is available today. | 
Portion of a study guide that uses Google Preview Books |  | Yes. We know that there are pages missing from most Preview Books. And we realize how frustrating it can be to be following a lesson and learning lots of stuff only to stumble across a couple of missing pages. Even trickier is the fact that the more you browse the book, the larger the number of pages that are removed. (Hint: Don't browse idly). Look at it this way: It is better to have access to 80% of a terrific $200 textbook than labor through 100% of someone's rejected manuscript or a textbook that is 70 years out of date. | | | Lifelong learning for the 21st century:  |
|
