LA PAGINA DELLE LIBRERIE ON LINE ARCHIVES

General

These are large, general-purpose collections with substantial English-language listings. For archives that mainly carry other languages, see the foreign languages archive listings. (altre lingue e specializzati)

• Project Gutenberg (about 3000 texts, mostly book-length)
  • Via Web site at promo.net
  • Via FTP at Ibiblio (direct access to Gutenberg files, may be messy)
  • Via "Gutenberg reader" interface (customizable HTML format, with ads, of selected Gutenberg etexts)
• The English Server (over 30,000 texts, many short)
• Electronic Text Center at UVA and its modern English collection (about 5,000 publicly available texts)
• Humanities Text Initiative (at UMichigan)
• CMU Universal Library Repository (various initiatives)
• Wiretap Electronic Text Archive
• Online Book Initiative (from std.com)
• Oxford Text Archive (in the UK)
• ATHENA (multilingual text index in Switzerland)
• Etext.org archives (lots of e-zines and shorter or unpublished etexts)
• The Bibliomania Library (from Data Text)
• Project Bartleby (by Steven van Leeuwen)
• Concordances of Great Books (search for words and phrases in 600 books)
• Voice of the Shuttle and its English Literature section
• Internet Public Library Books Collection
• Samizdat Express (eclectic collection of texts and pointers)
• Xooqi (vintage fiction)
• Eldritch Press (books with annotations and illustrations)
• Litrix Reading Room (classic novels and short stories)
• University of Toronto English Library
• PSU Electronic Classics (PDF versions of classic texts)
• University of California E-Editions (current scholarly writing)
• Electronic Open Stacks (preservation digitization at Chicago)
• National Library of Canada Electronic Collection (archives texts from or about Canada)
• Electric Press (recent books from selected publishers in page image format)
• Blackmask Online (2500+ books, most free, many formats, with reviews)
• Links to Electronic Book and Text Sites (from OmniMedia)

Foreign Languages

Tyler Chambers's iLoveLanguages site has a comprehensive listing of foreign language and literature resources. The University of Virginia's Western European Literature listing also lists a number of major collections in languages other than English. See also these archives:

• Bulgarian: Bulgarian Poetry Archive (at Columbia)
• Classical Languages:
  • Bibliotheca Augustana (Latin texts arranged by century)
  • Project Libellus (FTP from U-Washington)
  • Perseus Project (classical Greek texts at Tufts)
• Croatian: Croatian E-Text Project (at dalmatia.net)
• Czech:
  • Czech National Library Database of Digitized Documents
  • Knihovni Elektronickych Publikaci (at fortunecity.com)
• Danish: Dansk Nationallitterært Arkiv (in Denmark)
• Dutch:
  • Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren
  • Laurens Jansz. Coster
• Esperanto: Literaturo en Esperanto (at best.com)
• French:
  • ARTFL (French Language) project (at UChicago)
  • ATHENA French and Swiss texts
  • Association des bibliophiles Universels (public domain French texts; in France)
  • Le Château (French texts and commentary; at ilias.com)
  • Gallica from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (lots of 19th-century French texts)
• Gaelic: CELT Project (Irish electronic texts)
• German:
  • Göttinger Digitalisierungs-Zentrum (German and some English etexts)
  • Literaturlinks (index of German authors and books)
  • MATEO (Mannheim texts online)
  • Projekt Gutenberg-DE (German texts; no direct relation to the US-based Project Gutenberg)
  • Religio (Texts in German on religion; at thur.de)
• Hebrew: Classical Jewish texts (in Israel)
• Hungarian: Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár
• Icelandic / Old Norse: Netutgafan (classic Norse texts)
• Italian:
  • Biblioteca Telematica (public domain Italian literature)
  • Italian Literature in HTML (from Italy)
  • Ozoz Cyberbooks (Italian and English classics)
  • Progetto Manuzio / Liber Liber (from Italy)
• Polish:
  • Biblioteka Siecowa (Polish texts; at poland.com)
  • Staropolska (Old Polish literature)
• Portuguese:
  • Biblioteca Virtual de Língua e Literatura (Brazilian Literature)
  • Jornal de Poesia (Portuguese poetry)
  • Literatura Brasileira (Brazilian literature)
  • Literatura Brasileira (at usfc.br)
  • Projecto Vercial (Portuguese authors and literature)
• Russian: Russkaya Literatura v Internete (at friends-partners.org)
• Sanskrit: Dvaita Text Resources (classic Hindu texts)
• Scandinavian Languages: Project Runeberg (from Sweden)
• Slovak: Projekt Bernolák (in Slovakia)
• Slovenian: Slovenian texts (in Slovenia)
• Spanish:
  • Biblioteca Electronica Cristiana (Christian electronic texts in Spanish)
  • Biblioteca Virtual Miguel De Cervantes (Spanish texts; JavaScript-dependent)
  • Comedia Library (Hispanic classical theater texts)
  • Elaleph (Spanish-language PDF texts)
  • Textos Lemir (medieval Spanish texts)
• Ukrainian: Electronic Library of Ukrainian Literature (at Toronto)

Specialty Archives

These are listed by category:
Agriculture -- Art and Crafts -- Audio -- Blacks -- Children -- Computing -- Dissertations -- Economics -- Historical -- Literary -- Military -- Music and Dance -- New Original Works -- Poetry -- Politics, Government, Law -- Portable Reader Editions -- Religion -- Science, Social Science and Math -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror -- Women

Agriculture

• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (at Cornell)
• Historical Publications of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (at Kansas State)

Art and Crafts

• On-Line Digital Archive of Weaving Documents (at Arizona)

Audio

• AudioBooksforFree.com (classic and modern MP3 titles, with ads)
• Wired for Books (readings and interviews, in streaming audio)

Black Writers and Subjects

• Digital Schomburg African American Women Writers of the 19th Century (at nypl.org)
• North American Slave Narratives (at UNC)
• The Church in the Southern Black Community (at UNC)

Children's Literature

• Baldwin Project (classic children's literature, 1880-1922)
• The Best Children's Literature on the Net (GeoCities-based index to classics and originals)
• Children's Literature Web Guide (at Calgary)
• Hockliffe Project (hundreds of early British children's books)

Computing

• Computer and Internet Related Online Books (index at Hoganbooks)
• InformIT Free Library (by Macmillan; requires registration and email list subscription)
• Open Books Project (at O'Reilly)

Dissertations and Theses

• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (based at Virginia Tech)

Economics

• History of Economic Thought Archives (at McMaster)
• Humanity Development Library (at Tulane)
• Library of Economics and Liberty (at econlib.org)
• Palgrave Economics Library (registration required -- more details)

Historical

• The American Colonist's Library (primary sources for early US history)
• American Memory (historical texts and other media: Library of Congress)
• Archives of The West (historical texts supplementing the PBS mini-series)
• CELT Project (Irish electronic texts)
• Center of Military History (historical books and documents by the US Army)
• Chalidze Publications (w/ free historical and fiction books)
• Corvinus Library (Hungarian historical books)
• Czech National Library Database of Digitized Documents (Czech history; in Czech and Latin)
• Documenting the American South (at UNC)
• Early Canadiana Online (2000+ texts in English and French)
• Eighteenth Century E-Text (index at Rutgers)
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures (at Evansville)
• Fourth World Documentation Project (Indigenous studies; at cwis.org)
• Historical Text Archive (at Mississippi State)
• History in the National Park Service (at nps.gov)
• History of Economic Thought Archives (at McMaster)
• The Internet Classics Archive (Greek and Roman texts)
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook (at Fordham)
• Internet Modern History Sourcebook (at Fordham)
• Kansas Collection (regional historical resources)
• LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World (history of ancient Rome: at Kansas)
• Libro (Iberian historical resources, at the Univ. of Central Arkansas)
• The Luminarium (medieval - 17th century English literature)
• Making of America (mid-19th century American texts)
• Manx Note Book (with full texts on the history of the Isle of Man)
• Mountain Men Diaries, Narratives, and Letters (at xmission.com)
• Nineteenth Century Schoolbooks (at Pitt)
• Online Medieval and Classical Library (at Berkeley Sunsite)
• OPB Library (medieval texts)
• Perseus Project (classical Greek texts in translation; at Tufts)
• Renascence Editions (16th-18th century texts, ed. by Richard Bear)
• Steam Engine Library (at Rochester)
• Victorian Women Writers Project (at Indiana)
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1820-1940 (at Binghamton)

Literary

See also historical (for literature from a certain period), and new original works (for web-published literature) and poetry.

For literary criticism, the Internet Public Library's Online Literary Criticism Collection is a good starting point.

• Camelot Project (Arthurian texts; at Rochester)
• Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls (at Stanford)
• Gaslight (mystery, adventure, and weird tales and discussion)
• In Parentheses (PDF files of world literature; in Canada)
• SETIS Australian Literature Collection (in Australia)
• Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875 (at Indiana)

Military

• Center of Military History (historical books and documents by the US Army)
• General Dennis J. Reimer Training and Doctrine Digital Library (army field manuals, etc.)
• Napoleonic Literature (including online books on his military campaigns)

Music and Dance

• An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1600-1920 (at LOC)
• The Choral Public Domain Library (thousands of choral scores)
• Historic American Sheet Music (3000+ pieces, 1850-1920: at Duke)
• Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music (at JHU)
• Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885 (over 47,000 songs: at LOC)

New Original Works

These archives have substantial collections of material that has been first published first on the Net, or that appeared on the Web shortly after their original publication. See also the Open Directory's Online Writing links, which include pointers to many such archives, large and small, of varying quality.

• The Assayer (review free titles from various sources)
• C&C Clocktower Fiction (featuring SF, mystery, and horror)
• Coach House Books (poetry and other experimental works, from Canada)
• Cyber-Books (unpublished and prepublished; at starry.com)
• Electronic Literature Directory (index of works written for the digital medium)
• IPL New Media Fiction Collection (using the Internet to tell stories in new ways)
• Orange Street Press (online text, audio, magazine)
• Star Thrower Publishing (modern and experimental online literature)

Poetry

• Aha! Poetry (tanka, haiku, and other forms)
• American Verse Project (at Michigan)
• British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832 (at UC Davis)
• Canadian Poetry (at uwo.ca)
• Contemporary American Poetry Archive (at Connecticut College)
• HyperEpos (index of online epic poetry)
• Jornal de Poesia (Brazilian poetry)
• Light and Dust (modern poetry)
• Poet's Corner (at GeoCities)
• The Poetry Archives (3000+ poems; at emule.com)
• Sonnet Central (sonnets and criticism; at AOL)

Politics, Government, Law

• The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School (historic law-related texts)
• American Radicalism Collection (at MSU)
• Lehman Lee Law Library (Chinese laws and commentary)
• Marxists.org Internet Archive (at marxists.org)
• Selected political documents (courtesy clamen)
• Spunk Library (anarchist and related texts; in the Netherlands)
• Thomas (US laws and legislation)

Portable Reader Editions

• Aportis eBook Library (3000 free texts in special format for Palm readers)
• PalmPilot E-Text Ring (80+ sites featuring free or for-pay texts formatted for Palm readers)
• Qvadis Library (free texts in proprietary Palm format; requires purchase of reader software)

Religion

• Access to Insight (readings in Therevada Buddhism)
• Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (at al-islam.org)
• Amazing Facts Library (Seventh-Day Adventist material)
• Bahá'i Academics Resource Library (at bahai-library.org)
• Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Hare Krishna, other Eastern religion texts)
• Biblioteca Electronica Cristiana (Christian electronic texts in Spanish)
• Chabad Lubavitch Books (books on Hasidic Judaism)
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library (at Calvin College)
• The Church in the Southern Black Community (at UNC)
• Classical Jewish texts (in Hebrew, in Israel)
• Divine Life Society (writings on Hindu religion and philosophy)
• The Church in the Southern Black Community (at UNC)
• Classical Jewish texts (in Hebrew, in Israel)
• Dvaita Text Resources (classic Hindu texts in Sanskrit)
• Grandes de la Espiritualidad (classic religious spirituality texts in Spanish)
• Internet Sacred Text Archive (various religions)
• Pointing the Way: Christian Literature on the Internet (at ICLNet)
• Project Wittenberg (Lutheran texts; at ICLnet)
• Restoration Movement texts (at mun.ca)
• Rosicrucian Fellowship Library (at rosicrucian.com)
• Saint Pachomius Library (Orthodox and other Christian texts; at ocf.org)
• Secular Web Library (atheist and related literature; at infidels.org)
• Still Waters free text archive (new and classic Calvinist texts)
• Theosophical University Press (occult books from 19th and 20th centuries)
• Theravada Text Archives (new and classic Buddhist texts)
• Two Thousand Years of Catholic Writings (local index)

Science, Social Science, and Math

• ArXiv.org e-Print archive (technical papers straight from the labs)
• Astronomical Books Online (index in the Netherlands; if site not available yet try this mirror)
• Electronic Library of Mathematics (in Germany)
• Literature and Medicine Database (at NYU)
• Math Book Collection (multilingual; at Cornell)
• National Academy Press (online science books and summaries)
• National Center for Biotechnology Information (online medical books and papers)
• Neonatology on the Web: Classic Papers and Books (at neonatology.org)
• Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (lots of wildlife publications)
• United Nations University Press
• The Virtual Hospital (texts on medical issues)

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror

• Baen Free Library (free electronic versions of selected Baen SF titles)
• Gateway (online SF short stories)
• Infinity Plus (SF, fantasy, and horror stories from current published authors)
• Science Fiction Resource Guide (texts and author information)

Women

• A Celebration of Women Writers (local feature)
• British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832 (at UC Davis)
• Digital Schomburg African American Women Writers of the 19th Century (at nypl.org)
• Emory Women Writers Resource Project (at Emory)
• Victorian Women Writers Project (at Indiana)
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1820-1940 (at Binghamton)