Biblio Bites (Mini-sode #4) - Reading the Time of COVID-19

Welcome back to Biblio Bites, an occasional series at The Forgotten Library, where I talk briefly about news from the world of books (and libraries). As always, I’m Nikki Gee.

By now, I’d imagine pretty much all of my lovely listeners have been impacted in some way by the coronavirus known as COVID-19. It’s spreading rapidly, and yes, it is pretty scary. In addition, it has swiftly modified how many of us are living – workers are telecommuting, restaurants are ghost towns, and children are home way past their spring break. Even Walt Disney World is closed and in Florida, that’s how you know that shit is serious.

Many libraries are also closing, which, if you pregamed and got print titles out ahead of time, fantastic! Ebooks, of course, are always available, but if the physical branches are closed, I’m willing to bet that the virtual queues for online materials will skyrocket. As of the time of this recording, I am not aware of any ebook publisher changing the one-checkout-at-a-time policy. I believe that Hoopla items are the only exception to this.

So, if you’re looking for other places to find books and other resources to peruse at ANY time, I have literally been preparing for this episode for years. My folder entitled “Books Etc” in my browser’s toolbar is EXTENSIVE. Keep in mind that these are all free and LEGAL resources, so the majority of this stuff is either out of copyright or under creative commons. I will post all of these links onto the website as well as in the show notes. We’ll start with all-ages resources and then some educational helps for the kiddos stuck at home.

The first set of these are what I like to call the “supermarkets” of ebooks. They’re good places to start, as they have good variety and thousands of titles. They’re also dangerous, however, as you could easily spend hours browsing and downloading.

Most of you have heard of Project Gutenberg, I’m sure, but we’ll start there, as it’s the granddaddy of all ebook resources. Starting in 1971 with one man, Michael Hart, a mainframe computer at the University of Illinois, and The Declaration of Independence typed out painstakingly by hand, PG is now home to over 50,000 electronic texts, formatted for computers, electronic readers, and more. All of the material is in the public domain (with the exception of the self-published side), and no longer in copyright in the United States. Each text is carefully edited and proofread by volunteers from all over the world, and if you have an interest in helping, you can, even if you only have five minutes a day. One of my favorite features of PG is the Top 100, where you can see trends in what is being downloaded by users in the past day, week, or month.

The Online Books Page, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the oldest book repositories on the web; this site hosts links to millions of free books, as well as open access journals. You're sure to find something you like here! The majority of the books are English language, but there are also selections from other languages, too. The special exhibits are a nice feature: A Celebration of Women Writers, Banned Books, and Prize Winning Books, with handy links to items that are accessible from the site.

One of my favorite areas of this site is the extensive list of serial archives. These are old magazines, such as Atlantic Monthly and Ladies' Home Journal, as well as some that are more obscure, such as The Condor (an avian magazine). Each magazine has a page devoted to a timeline that lists where you might find archives, and whether or not one can freely access them (HathiTrust, for example, has some archives that are accessible to everyone, but others are limited to search only, due to copyright restrictions, or only available to persons with a university affiliation).

The Internet Archive has an entire section of their massive website devoted to over 12 million electronic books. You'll definitely find some out-of-print and rarities here. You can search for something in particular, or you can browse the subsections, such as Canadian Libraries or Princeton Theological Seminary Library. Books can be read in your browser or downloaded in several different formats. Of course, the Internet Archive has many other interesting things, such as the Prelinger Film Archive, old-time radio shows, and classic PC games (a person could probably spend the rest of their life on the Archive and still not see everything, I'm betting), these do not fit into the topic of this episode. If you would like a break from books, however, a look around the rest of the site is worth your time!

For history buffs, the Open Education Database has a list of over 250 digital libraries and archives of state history, in alphabetical order by the state in question. All are open access to the public, and include things such as images, digitized maps, journals, and more. A brief description follows each link so that the user knows what they might find there. At the bottom of the page are some multi-state resources, such as the National Archives, and Oyez, which provides access to thousands of hours of Supreme Court audio; the National Library of Medicine; and electronic book repositories, some of which I’ve already mentioned.

And no, I didn’t forget Google. But I’ve put it at the end of this little segment for a reason. While it can be used to find quite a few free and legal books, Google is not the best resource, and most of the books one can download are only in PDF format, which is pretty heavy, space-wise, and harder to read on an eReader. Now if you are reading on a tablet, you might have a better time of it and by all means, feel free to take a browse around their pages. I just find their resource a bit clunky.

The aforementioned resources are general repositories, spanning different genres. If you’re more of a niche reader, I have you covered, too.

If you like pulp fiction (the publications, not the movie) The Pulp Magazine Project bills itself as "an archive of all-fiction pulpwood magazines from 1896-1946." All are in the public domain, and include such beauties as "I Confess" and "Weird Tales," which if you're a Lovecraft fan, you're going to want to check out the latter. Most are available for download as a PDF, but some also can be seen in Flipbook format. This is a small but growing collection, and it's worth the time to look.

For old comics lovers among you, there’s the Digital Comics Museum and Comic Book Plus. Now in its tenth year on the web, the DCM has public domain, free downloads of Golden Age comics (roughly late 1930s to 1950). Many have scans that can be looked through without registration, but obtaining a login is free, and there is no limit to how many comics you can download for your offline perusal. Comic Book Plus is a treasure trove of Golden, as well as Silver (approximately 1950s to 1970) Age comics. They also have some pulp magazines, old government pamphlets, and more. You can read anything you'd like online as a guest, but for downloading, you need to create a login. Comic Book Plus is where I get many of my comics for the full episodes of the Forgotten Library.

Interested in religion, mythology, or folklore? The Sacred Texts Archive probably has something for you. The site hosts over 1,000 items that are either public domain or under copyright but redistributable, free for your reading pleasure or scholarship.

And now for one of my personal favorite categories, food and cooking!

Proudly hosted at Michigan State University, the Feeding America collection has over 75 cookbooks spanning the late 18th through the early 20th century. The project highlights what it considers the most influential cookbooks during that time span, from American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (the first cookbook published in America for Americans, rather than a British reprint) to the burgeoning of domestic science (the Beecher sisters) and finally some international flavors (Italian, Jewish, and Chinese, among others).

Indiana University-Perdue libraries hosts Service through Sponge Cake; this collection of nearly 90 items are mostly cookbooks published by community organizations, such as 4-H; there are also some historic menus that have been scanned in, which are always good for a peek to see what was popular in fine dining at the time.

Perhaps more of historical interest than actual cooking (although many of the materials have been adapted for modern kitchens), Gode Cookery houses medieval recipes of all stripes. The group also hosts historical feasts and there is a section of the website devoted to recounting those events and meals. Fascinating! They also have a YouTube channel if you’d prefer to devour more visually.

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery has been held every year since 1981. The papers presented at these symposia (prior to the most recent three years) are now available for free download. These are more scholarly offerings than cookbooks, but if you enjoy food history (a topic that has become increasingly popular in recent years) this will be an enjoyable find for you. It certainly was for me!!

Visually impaired listeners, or those that prefer audiobooks for other reasons, I’ve got some suggestions for you, as well. The Internet Archive, mentioned earlier in this episode, also has a section for audio books and poetry. Many classics are available, and some are copied over from Librivox and Project Gutenberg. In addition, many of the ebook titles available in the regular catalog might also have a DAISY version, if you have a reader or app that supports this format.

Librivox is the audiobook version of Project Gutenberg - public domain titles read by an international cadre of volunteers. Each book is meticulously recorded and put together by a project manager, who ensures the finished book is listenable. Then it's available for download to your computer or mobile device. There's over 11,000 items available, either through their own website or hosted at Internet Archive.

Some of the previous resources I have mentioned do have items that some of your kids would read. If they’re missing storytime at your library, or you’re tired and want a break, perhaps a famous person can help you out. Storyline Online streams videos of actors reading children’s books along with the illustrations, and each book is accompanied with supplemental curriculum. I just watched Chris O’Dowd read Arnie the Doughnut and it was delightful. Other ones I saw were Wanda Sykes, Alison Janney, and Betty White. They have great closed-captions for the deaf/Hard of Hearing, too.

Scholastic is offering the Learn at Home program; this free resource will provide 20 days of “learning journeys,” which are multimedia activities offering four lessons a day for up to three hours of instruction. The site is separated by grade level and has items for kindergarten up through middle school.

For burgeoning science buffs in K-5, Mystery Science has pulled some of their most popular lessons to share with parents and educators. Mini-lessons are 15-30 minutes, while full lessons are 45-90 minutes and include some sort of hands-on activity. No login or account is required, unless you want access to more of the mini-lessons, which are also available to parents for free.

And finally, a resource for either kids or adults. It’s at the end because a friend shared it with me right before recording this episode. Travel & Leisure Magazine posted an article highlighting 12 museums that offer virtual tours of their offerings. It’s part of a bigger collection from Google Arts & Culture; the full list runs to about 500 museums and galleries worldwide, some of which offer full tours, while others a handful of collections. Some of the highlights are the British Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Guggenheim, and the National Gallery. It appears for the ones offering virtual tours, you need to download an app, which is available for both Android and iOS.

I hope that these sites and resources help, especially in these tumultuous times. We need our escapism whenever possible, and for many of us, diving into a good book is the form it takes.

Be safe, practice good hygiene and social distancing, and stay positive. It’s easy to get sucked into the anxiety and the doom and gloom (trust me, I know), but we WILL get through this.

This is Nikki Gee signing off. Thank you for listening.

Links List (in order of mention):

Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org

The Online Books Page. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu

The Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/texts

Open Education Database - 250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives. http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/250-plus-killer-digital-libraries-and-archives/

Google Books. http://books.google.com

Pulp Magazine Project. http://www.pulpmags.org/index.htm

The Digital Comic Museum. http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php

Comic Book Plus. http://comicbookplus.com

Internet Sacred Texts Archive. http://www.sacred-texts.com

Feeding America. http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html