Jeff Knapp, reference and
instruction librarian,
Penn State Altoona
Just Browsing: Embrace Your Inner Geek
Jeff Knapp, Eiche Library, Penn State Altoona
I have always loved knowing stuff. It could be almost anything—history, science, engineering—you name it, if it was a piece of the overall jigsaw puzzle I envisioned life to be, then I wanted it. There was always a feeling of satisfaction I got after learning something new, kind of like I was checking something off some cosmic “list” somewhere. I remember feeling this satisfaction when I learned things like what the difference is between a steer and a bull (ouch), how an internal combustion engine works, and how electricity is generated. However, I distinctly remember not feeling this satisfaction when I learned how it feels to use your chin to break your fall on pavement or what the load-bearing limit of roof racks are on a Buick traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike (yes Dad, I’m still sorry about that).
I admit it, I’m a geek. But a friendlier word would be “Lifelong Learner,” and I know I’m not the only one. Since librarians have always been supporters of the concept of lifelong learning, the subject of this column will be free online resources to satisfy your “inner geek.”
Thanks to the rampant popularity of iPods and other digital music players, educational material never has to be farther away than the length of your headphone cord. If you have a long commute to work, and you want something other than the news or music to help pass the time, try downloading some podcasts to expand your mind (but if you drive, please don’t use headphones—there are ways to listen through your car’s radio). LearnOutLoud.com is a subscription service, but they do offer a lot of free content, such as audiobooks, speeches, and lectures.
This is a great idea. This is a non-profit organization that offers audiobooks (that are in the public domain) for free to the public. They then release their recordings to the public domain, as well. Of course, you won’t find the latest best seller available here, but classic works of literature such as Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, and even the Bible can be downloaded for free. Feeling altruistic? You can also volunteer to read for future recordings!
A gentleman by the name of Jimmy Ruska has put together a nice list of free course web casts offered by colleges and universities such as Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and MIT. Not really for the casual learner—after all, these are video web casts of actual courses at some quite competitive institutions—but worth taking a look at nonetheless.
If you are a reader, and you have a portable reading device, such as a PDA, iPod, or eBook reader, Manybooks.net offers free ebooks from the public domain for download in many different formats, including PDF, PDF large print, Microsoft Word, and eReader. Again, you won’t find the latest bestsellers here, but they do have some quirky old books from the late 1800s, and an interesting collection of pulp novels from the 1950s.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Habla Español? Mango is a brand-new site, currently in beta, that offers free language learning courses. Eleven languages are available now, including Spanish, Russian, French, and Mandarin Chinese. If you’ve ever wanted to learn another language, you now have one less excuse.
Happy learning everybody!
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