Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology
Michael Wesch · New Prairie Press · 2018
Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. “Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,” Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. “Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. … It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one’s hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a “heroic” profession.” What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world’s jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human.
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Digital Cartography
Dorris Scott · Washington University Libraries · 2024
Digital Cartography covers foundational cartographic principles that are needed to make effective maps. lt explores such concepts as data, lettering, along with multivariate and uncertainty visualization. By the end of this book, a reader will be able to: (1) Describe how cartographic concepts such generalization, scale and projection will affect mapping products; (2) Identify the medium, purpose, and spatial data requirements to create a map that is appropriate to a specific audience; (3) Evaluate maps produced by peers and various organizations; and (4) Construct maps that effectively use color, font, and other design elements using ArcGIS Pro.
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Dublin Core Quick Start
Caitlin Mathesis; Bailey VandeKamp; Micah Bateman · University of Iowa · 2024
This book is designed as a quick introduction to authoring metadata using basic elements from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
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Introduction to Earth Science
Laura Neser · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2025
Introduction to Earth Science, Second Edition is an open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice. The sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts. It has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Similar to the layout of the first edition, this book dedicates one chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our Solar System. Additionally, the second edition includes a new chapter on meteorology, and combines the previously separate chapters on deserts and glaciers into a single, comprehensive chapter that explores these extreme environments. The first edition of this book is available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook: please help us understand your use by filling out this form: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science.
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Microbiology for Earth Scientists
Matthew Kirk · New Prairie Press · 2023
Microorganisms are the most abundant form of life on Earth and in recent decades it has become increasingly clear that their collective activities are one of the dominant forces shaping the Earth. This book provides earth scientists with an introduction to microbiology and a look at the ways microorganisms are important to their area of expertise. The first part of this book summarizes some basic information about microorganisms, including a discussion of their diversity, physical properties, and metabolisms. From there, the second and third portions of the book are organized around the two-way interactions between microorganisms and their environments. The second portion of the book considers the ways that environmental conditions help determine distributions of microbial activity, including chapters focused on thermodynamic, kinetic, and biological factors. The third and final portion of the book examines the impacts of microbes on their environments. These impacts are placed within the context of earth system science, with chapters focused on impacts to the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. In these chapters, emphasis is placed on microbial impacts to greenhouse gas levels and the quality of water resources, underscoring the relevance of microbiology to environmental concerns of keen interest in the earth science community and beyond. This book is specifically designed for earth science students and can provide a helpful free resource for students in Geomicrobiology courses. However, portions of the book can also have value for students and professionals from any field who are interested in environmental microbiology.
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The Essential Guide to Planet Earth
Benjamin Burger · Benjamin Burger · 2020
Every moment of your life will be from the perspective of a single planet—Planet Earth. You were born here and you will die here. This textbook is a guide to your home, to your place in the universe. By taking this course, you will learn about your home planet: how it works and how we know it works this way. This course is a user's manual for planet Earth, with direct recommendations for future generations, such as yourself, to maintain its health and natural wonders. As an astute student, you will be introduced to the theoretical principles of science and of how to defend yourself from the spread of ignorance. You will learn about Earth’s dimensions and motions, as well as how to navigate its surface. You will learn how energy originates from the closest star (the Sun), its Moon, and other sources of energy in the Earth’s active core and how this energy can be used and stored. You will learn basic scientific principles of matter, the makeup of substances that form the field of chemistry. You will examine the planet’s atmosphere, the air that you are breathing as you read this, and how that air is slowly changing. You will explore the vast abundance of Earth’s water, covering the planet in enormous oceans, abundant lakes, and rivers, as well as frozen water locked within snow and ice. You will learn how to predict wind and storms and how climates shift. You will lead your own exploration of the solid interior of the Earth, the composition of mountains, rocks, and dirt. You will learn about life, the most unique feature of the planet. You will explore theories of how life arose and how it has evolved and changed over time, learning that you are of Earth and the story of your own origin on this planet. You will undertake an examination of the great biomes of jungles, forests, and deserts and the life that exists within them. You will survey the important field of biology as you learn about life and its interactions with the planet. In the end, you will come to face th
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Part SM: Statistical Mechanics
Konstantitn Likharev · Stony Brook University · 2013
Essential Graduate Physics, Lecture Notes and Problems This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Academic Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Essential Graduate Physics by an authorized administrator of Academic Commons. For more information, please contact mona.ramonetti@stonybrook.edu, hu.wang.2@stonybrook.edu.
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Part QM: Quantum Mechanics
Konstantin Likharev · Stony Brook University · 2013
Essential Graduate Physics, Lecture Notes and Problems This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Academic Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Essential Graduate Physics by an authorized administrator of Academic Commons. For more information, please contact mona.ramonetti@stonybrook.edu, hu.wang.2@stonybrook.edu.
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Part EM: Classical Electrodynamics
Konstantitn Likharev · Stony Brook University · 2013
Essential Graduate Physics, Lecture Notes and Problems This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Academic Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Essential Graduate Physics by an authorized administrator of Academic Commons. For more information, please contact mona.ramonetti@stonybrook.edu, hu.wang.2@stonybrook.edu.
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Part CM: Classical Mechanics
Konstantin Likharev · Stony Brook University · 2013
Essential Graduate Physics, Lecture Notes and Problems This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Academic Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Essential Graduate Physics by an authorized administrator of Academic Commons. For more information, please contact mona.ramonetti@stonybrook.edu, hu.wang.2@stonybrook.edu.
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The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide
Daniel Hauptvogel; Virginia Sisson · University of Houston · 2023
This is the second edition of our open-access lab manual for a historical geology lab released for the Fall 2023 semester. It focuses on student observations. We have uploaded this book to Lulu Press so that you may have them print a copy for you. The cost is $21.63 plus shipping. We believe in free access to educational materials, therefore we collect no revenue from Lulu. The price you pay is simply the cost Lulu charges to print the materials for you. You can also download a printable PDF version to print on your own. Do you plan on using the lab manual? Have any questions, comments, suggestions, or notice an error? Please fill out our contact form and let us know!
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Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest
Robert Yeats · Oregon State University · 2004
In this expanded new edition of Living with Earthquakes, Robert Yeats, a leading authority on earthquakes in California and the Pacific Northwest, describes the threat posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a great earthquake fault which runs for hundreds of miles offshore from British Columbia to northern California. New research reveals subtle movements on the deepest part of this fault every 14-15 months — building up strain toward the next major earthquake. Combining cutting-edge research with practical safety information, Living with Earthquakes: • introduces new information about the danger from faults beneath major Northwest cities: the Seattle Fault, Tacoma Fault, and Portland Hills Fault• explores such topics as earthquake forecasting, catastrophe insurance, tsunamis, soil liquefaction, and seismic waves in Northwest lakes caused by Alaskan earthquakes• reviews earthquake preparedness and disaster response in the aftermath of the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the worst natural disaster in Washington's history• suggests actions that citizens can take to protect their families and homesAn essential guide for anyone interested in understanding earthquake science or in preparing for the next earthquake, this book is also a call to action. Vivid descriptions of recent disasters — including the great tsunami that swept down the Northwest coast in 1964, the 1993 Oregon earthquakes, and the 2001 Nisqually earthquake — underscore the urgent need for better earthquake planning and awareness.
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The Art and Science of Personal Wellness
A.J. Stephen · Fanshawe College Pressboks · 2025
This educational resource is the official course textbook for Personal Wellness – INDS 1081 at Fanshawe College. Designed for today’s learners, it explores the eight core dimensions of wellness—physical, emotional, social, financial, spiritual, occupational, intellectual, and environmental—through a practical, evidence-informed lens.
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You're Smarter Than You Think: Statistics
Safaa Dabagh · Safaa Dabagh · 2026
You're Smarter Than You Think: Statistics is a free, openly licensed introduction to statistics written for community college students and designed from the ground up for neurodivergent and anxious learners. Every section follows the same six-step rhythm (Read This First, Let's Talk About It, Now We Name It, Watch It Work, Your Turn, Check Your Voice), and every chapter opens with a Math Skills warm-up so a missing arithmetic step never derails a big idea. The book is organized around the student learning outcomes shared by community college statistics courses: describing data, estimating with confidence, and testing claims. It covers data and sampling, graphs, center and spread, probability, distributions, the Central Limit Theorem, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, two-sample tests, ANOVA, chi-square, and regression. Four free Technology Companions (R and RStudio, jamovi, StatCrunch, and the TI-84) carry every method into whatever software a course uses, each keyed chapter by chapter and packaged with ready-made datasets. Graphs, printable work space, answer keys, per-part formula sheets, and a cumulative final-exam prep are included throughout.
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The Art of Polynomial Interpolation
Stuart Murphy · Pennsylvania State University
The inspiration for this text grew out of a simple question that emerged over a number of years of teaching math to Middle School, High School and College students. Practically speaking, what is the origin of a particular polynomial? So much time is spent analyzing, factoring, simplifying and graphing polynomials that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that polynomials have a wealth of practical uses. Exploring the techniques of interpolating data allows us to view the development and birth of a polynomial. This text is focused on laying a foundation for understanding and applying several common forms of polynomial interpolation. The principal goals of the text are: Breakdown the process of developing polynomials to demonstrate and give the student a feel for the process and meaning of developing estimates of the trend (s) a collection of data may represent. Introduce basic matrix algebra to assist students with understanding the process without getting bogged down in purely manual calculations. Some manual calculations have been included, however, to assist with understanding the concept. Assist students in building a basic foundation allowing them to add additional techniques, of which there are many, not covered in this text.
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Math in Society: Mathematics for liberal arts majors
Cara Lee · Portland Community College Math Department · 2018
We dedicate this book to our students. May you have greater ease in paying for college and grow your proficiency and confidence in math.
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A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Mathematics
Joseph Fields · Southern Connecticut State University · 2015
This book is designed for the transition course between calculus and differential equations and the upper division mathematics courses with an emphasis on proof and abstraction. The book has been used by the author and several other faculty at Southern Connecticut State University. There are nine chapters and more than enough material for a semester course. Student reviews are favorable. It is written in an informal, conversational style with a large number of interesting examples and exercises, so that a student learns to write proofs while working on engaging problems.
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The Data Renaissance: Analyzing the Disciplinary Effects of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Beyond [Revised Edition]
J.J. Sylvia IV · ROTEL · 2024
The Data Renaissance delves into the complexities of data's role in various industries and its broader impact on society. It highlights the challenges in investigating data practices, citing examples like TikTok, where algorithms and data handling are closely guarded secrets. The content, contributed by students under the guidance of an expert, covers a wide range of topics, including the ethical aspects of generative AI in education and the workplace, and case studies reflecting real-world experiences. This evolving text, intended to be updated with each class, serves as a dynamic resource for educators and students alike, offering insights and discussion guides for an in-depth understanding of the ever-changing landscape of data in our digital age.
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Philosophy and the Arts: A Textbook with Readings
Theodore Gracyk · Minnesota State Colleges and Universities · 2025
This book is an introduction to some influential theories in philosophy of art. It combines excerpts of historically important texts from European and American culture with explanations of the key ideas in those texts. The most recent of these texts dates from 1929.The overall organization is topical. Five topics have been selected. The chapters are relatively independent of one another and can be approached in any order.
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Public Speaking and Democratic Participation: Speech, Deliberation, and Analysis in the Civic Realm
Jennifer Abbott; Todd McDorman; David Timmerman; L. Jill Lamberton · PALNI · 2025
The second edition of Public Speaking and Democratic Participation: Speech, Deliberation, and Analysis in the Civic Realm equips students to effectively participate in and transform their communities through speech. Drawing on the ancient study of rhetoric, the textbook teaches students informative and persuasive speaking skills to develop and empower their public voice. Unique to this textbook, content is also provided on the democratic practices of deliberative discussion facilitation and rhetorical analysis. Together, these abilities help students recognize divisive civic discourse, counter social injustice, and nurture a healthier and more inclusive society.