Frequently Asked Questions
Are all of the books really free? Isn’t there a catch?
Yes, the books are offered for free by their authors/copyright holders, at least to view online. Some of the books have restrictions on printing, sharing, reusing them, etc. Please respect these restrictions. There’s no catch, but because this is a collection of other people’s work, each item will have different restrictions.
For instance, the books in Benjamin Crowell’s Light and Matter series of physics textbooks are available free as PDF files. You can print them out or just read them from your computer. If you like them, you can buy nicely bound versions from Prof. Crowell for a very reasonable price. You cannot reuse the material in your own for-profit book, however, nor can you distribute the book without giving credit to the author.
Some of the books here are only available to view online (not download or print) for free. A very few may make you register with a website to use them, although I have tried to limit these. Several of the sites have advertising on them, although I have also tried to limit these.
Meanwhile, at resource sites like Mathworld, there isn’t a “book” in the traditional sense at all. Mathworld is a free website, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, that offers all kinds of outstanding resources. While you could learn algebra and calculus entirely from the site, it is not designed for that purpose. However, you could quite easily use a 20-year old math textbook that you picked up for free or nearly free somewhere and supplement it with the Mathworld website and you would learn just as much as you would if you had spent $169.95 on a new calculus textbook bundle.
Why are you doing this? What’s wrong with buying textbooks from the college bookstore?
The textbook industry today is run by a small group of very large corporations who care very little about education and very much about maximizing profits. The industry charges outrageous prices for new textbooks while simultaneously doing everything it can to make older versions unusable or obsolete. There is simply no reason that a new calulus textbook should cost $157. The study of calculus, at least the type of calculus that most of us need to study in high school or undergraduate programs, has not changed significantly in decades. For an in-depth review of all that is wrong with the textbook industry, please read RipOff 101, a study by CalPirg. The Algonquin College Bookstore also has an FAQ on textbook prices here.
How many textbooks are there on the site?
It’s harder than it should be to put a number on it, because many of the resources listed have multiple books. We figure it’s somewhere around 500 textbooks or websites that could be used to replace a book as of October 2006. We hope to have more than 1000 books listed within a year.
What do I need to use the textbooks on this site?
Well, you’re obviously reading this on computer connected to the internet, so the battle is 90% over already. Many of the books on this site are in PDF format. PDF is the de facto standard for this kind of publication. You can read PDF files with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software or Foxit Reader. Acrobat Reader does just what it says—allow you to READ, save, and print, but not much else. For more advanced PDF tools that will let you edit PDF files, see the links page.
Who wrote these books? Why should I trust my education to them?
These books are the products of many different authors, most of whom I have no contact with. I have tried to select books that appeared to be complete and written by professionals, but you should research your books carefully before you use them, especially if you are a teacher assigning them to a class. Of course, they are FREE, so you can take the best chapters from each book and combine them as you wish. Anyway, I make no representation as to the quality of the content of these books. Buyer ahem beware.
What type of copyright do these books use?
It varies by book Each of the books has limitations on its use. Some are copyrighted. Some are licensed through Creative Commons. It is up to you to use the books in accordance with the author/copyright holder’s wishes. For more on different types of licenses, see the links section.
Are there reviews of these books? Can I review a book I’ve used?
There is an excellent website called The Assayer that is the preeminent place to review free books online. Many books here may already be reviewed at that website. If not, please start a review page for your favorite free textbook at that site.
How can I contribute to the free textbook project?
Check out this page for more info on how to help.
What advice would you give to students who are struggling with textbook prices?
- Talk to your professors and be open with them—explain that there are alternatives to the brand-new, $150 book they just assigned, especially in intro classes.
- Ask professors to put copies on reserve in the library.
- Ask professors if they have an evaluation copy you can borrow, especially for small classes.
- Ask if you can use an older edition—you can usually get these for next to nothing online.
- Most professors know months ahead of time what books they’ll be using. Email your profs a month before class starts and ask them. Then go shopping online and still have time for delivery.
- Ask your school to start a section on the website where the required texts for every class are listed, so you can shop earlier.
- Start a campus book swap, or use the one at maketextbooksaffordable.com
- And finally, get your professors to start using the FREE material at Textbook Revolution!
Your question here! Ask away: contact at textbookrevolution dot org
