In this well-researched article at World Scholars Hub, we have brought you some of the best websites for Free college textbooks pdf. These are highly rated websites where you can find free college textbooks online for your studies.
We had previously published an article on Free eBook download sites without registration. You can check it out if you like to know where you can download textbooks, magazines, articles, and novels in digital form, without going through any form of registration.
Downloading free college textbooks online saves you the stress of carrying bulky textbooks. Also, you will be saved on the high cost of buying textbooks for college courses.
Most times, College Students have to pay a huge amount of money for textbooks. Why pay for textbooks when you can easily download free college textbooks online?
The good thing is you can read these free college textbooks pdf on your mobile phone, laptop, tablet, iPad, or any reading device, at any time.
In this article, we will be listing websites where you can easily download totally free college textbooks pdf. Let’s get to know what a PDF textbook is.
Table of Contents
What is a PDF textbook?
Firstly, a textbook can be defined as a book that contains extensive information about a particular subject or a course of study that a student needs.
Having defined a textbook, a PDF textbook is a textbook in a digital format, consisting of texts, images, or both, readable on computers, or other electronic devices. However, you may need to download PDF reader apps to be able to open some PDF books.
Info on websites for Free college textbooks PDF
These websites have free books including free college textbooks in PDF and other document types like EPUB and MOBI.
The free college textbooks pdf provided by these websites are licensed. This means you are not downloading illegal or pirated books.
Most of the websites have a search bar where you can search by title, author, or ISBN. You can easily type the ISBN of the textbook you want to download.
Also, most of these websites are easily accessible. You don’t have to register before you can download on most of the websites listed in this article.
List of the top 10 websites for free college textbooks pdf in 2022
Here is a list of websites that provides their users with free digital books. Students can easily download free college textbooks online on these websites:
- Library Genesis
- OpenStax
- Internet Archive
- Open Textbook Library
- ScholarWorks
- Digital Book Index
- PDF Grab
- Free Book Spot
- Project Gutenberg
- Bookboon.
Where to get free college textbooks pdf online
1. Library Genesis
Library Genesis, also known as LibGen is a platform that provides free books, including free college textbooks that you can download online.
LibGen allows users to access thousands of free college textbooks online, available for download in PDF and other document types.
Free college textbooks pdf are available in different languages and different subject areas: Technology, Art, Science, Business, History, Social Science, Computer, Medicine, and many more.
Immediately after you enter the website, you will see a search bar that allows you to search for books. You can search by title, author, series, publisher, year, ISBN, language, MDS, tags, or extension.
Apart from being a website for downloading free college textbooks, Library Genesis provides scientific articles, magazines, and fiction books.
LibGen tops this list of 10 websites for Free college textbooks pdf because it is an easy-to-use website. Library Genesis is user-friendly.
2. OpenStax
OpenStax is another website where college students can have access to 100% free college textbooks pdf online, available in English and Spanish. It is an education initiative of Rice University, which is a non-profit charitable corporation.
Its mission is to improve educational access and learning for everyone, by publishing openly licensed books, developing, and improving research-based courseware, establishing partnerships with educational resource companies, and more.
OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are absolutely free online and low-cost in print.
Free college textbooks pdf are available in different subject areas: math, science, social sciences, humanities, and business.
Textbooks provided by OpenStax are written by professional authors and also meet standard scope and sequence requirements, making them adaptable to an existing course.
Apart from being a website for free college textbooks pdf, OpenStax also has textbooks for high school courses.
3. Internet Archive
Internet Archive is an easy-to-use website, where students can download free university textbooks pdf and free college textbooks online. Free college textbooks pdf are available in almost all subject areas.
Books published prior to 1926 are available for download, and hundreds of thousands of modern books can be borrowed through the Open Library site.
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It works with over 750 libraries, including university libraries, and other partners.
4. Open Textbook Library
Open Textbook Library is a website that provides free college textbooks which are available for download, editing, and distribution at no cost.
The Open Textbook Library is supported by the Open Education Network, to transform higher education and student learning.
Textbooks are available in the following subjects: Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Humanities, Journalism, Media Studies & Communications, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.
About a thousand textbooks are available at Open Textbook Library. These textbooks are licensed by authors and published to be freely used and adapted.
5. ScholarWorks
ScholarWorks has a wide range of free college textbooks online. It is a website you can visit to download free college textbooks pdf.
You can easily search for open textbooks you require for your college courses across all repositories by title, author, citation information, keywords e.t.c.
ScholarWorks is a service of the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Libraries.
6. Digital Book Index
Digital Book Index is another website where students can find free university textbooks pdf.
Textbooks at Digital Book Index are available in History, Social Sciences, Medicine & Health, Math & Sciences, Philosophy & Religion, Law, and other subject areas. You can also search for textbooks by author/title, subjects, and publishers.
Digital Book Index provides links to hundreds of thousands of full-text digital books, from publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available for free.
7. PDF Grab
PDF Grab is a source for free textbooks and ebook PDFs.
Students can find free college textbooks pdf or free university textbooks pdf online on this platform. These free textbooks are available across different categories like Business, Computer, Engineering, Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences.
There is also a search bar on the website, where users can search for textbooks by title or ISBN.
8. Free Book Spot
Free Book Spot is a free ebook link library where you can download free books in almost any category and in different languages.
Students can visit this website for free college textbooks pdf which is available in different categories and languages. There is also a search bar where users can search for books by title, author, ISBN, and language.
Textbooks on Free Book Spot are available in categories like engineering, agriculture, art, computer sciences, biology, education, archaeology, astronomy and cosmology, economy, architecture, and many more.
Apart from textbooks, Free Book Spot has audiobooks, children’s books, and novels.
9. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is an online library of free digital books, created by Michael Hart in 1971. It is one of the first providers of free electronic books.
You will find the World’s great literature on Project Gutenberg. So, students who offer literature courses can visit Project Gutenberg for free literature books.
Apart from literature, there are also free college textbooks pdf in other subject areas, available for download.
However, most books on Project Gutenberg are in EPUB and MOBI format, there are still few books in PDF file type.
The good thing about Project Gutenberg is that it requires no fees or registration. Also, books downloaded from the website can easily be read on your phone or laptop without any special apps.
10. Bookboon
Bookboon provides students with free textbooks written by professors from the world’s top universities, covering topics from Engineering and IT to Economics and Business.
However, Bookboon is not totally free, you will only gain free access to books for 30 days. After then, you will have to pay an affordable monthly subscription before you can download textbooks.
Bookboon is not just a website for students’ textbooks only, you can also learn skills and personal development.
Apart from being a website for free college textbooks, Bookboon provides learning solutions for employee personal development.
Bookboon is the last on the list of 10 websites for Free college textbooks pdf online in 2022.
Alternative Ways to reduce the amount of money spent on college textbooks
A lot of students want to further their education in college but they are not financially capable to pay for tuition, textbooks, and other fees.
However, students with financial need can apply for FAFSA and use the financial aid provided by FAFSA to cover the cost of education in colleges that accepts FAFSA. There are also online colleges that have very low tuition. In fact, some online colleges don’t even require an application fee, unlike most traditional colleges.
Apart from downloading free college textbooks online, you can also cut down the amount of money spent on buying textbooks in the following ways:
1. Visiting your School’s library
You can read textbooks required for college courses in the library. Also, you can use the available textbooks in the library to do your assignments.
2. Buy used textbooks
Students can also buy used textbooks to lessen the amount of money spent on buying textbooks. Used textbooks are sold at a cheaper rate, compared to new textbooks.
3. Borrow textbooks
Students can also borrow textbooks from the library, and from friends.
4. Buy textbooks online
You can buy books from online bookstores, they are usually cheaper. Amazon provides textbooks at an affordable rate.
Conclusion
One of the most significant expenses of college is textbooks and other reading materials. You won’t have to buy textbooks at an expensive rate again if you follow this guide carefully.
We hope you have found a new way to access free college textbooks online without having to break the bank. Let us know your thoughts in the Comment Section below.
You can also find out the affordable non-profit online colleges.