Penn State University Press' "Unlocked" (I.e., Open Access) Titles.

[GtrsRGr8]

Penn State University Press, like many university presses, has an open access program. For the reader, that means (at least, almost always) that you have an opportunity to read and own lots and lots of high-quality ebooks, for free .

If you'll navigate to this PSU Press webpage, you will find three categories of free unlocked ebooks--"Featured Unlocked," "Newly Unlocked," and "Unlocked Backlist."

You may think that since they are free that the quality must be compromised--in common parlance, "they're not as good as the ones that are sold." Although I'm certainly no expert on the subject, my impression is that open access books are just as high a quality as the ebooks that are sold. In fact, it seems that ebooks that are unlocked are generally, if not most of the time, ebooks that have been regularly and successfully sold in the past.

One thing that I like about the PSU Press is that their ebooks are so much less arcane and much more down-to-earth than the tomes coming from some of the other university presses. I refer to books which seem like they would be "accessible" only to professors, or students on a graduate or higher level, in the respective subjects. And, too, many of those, especially, seem to have a political agenda, and their publications frequently reflect that; I find that off-putting.

PSU Press, like all university presses that I am familiar with, specialize in certain subjects (come to think of it, I guess that that is true of all publishers ). If you will navigate to the Press' newsletter sign up webpage, you will see all of the subjects that the Press specializes in. Expect books from university presses to be skewed toward subjects about the state or region in which the press operates. BTW--it possible for you to sign up for only a PSU Press' newsletter that gives only "the newest titles as they are released into open access." Nice touch.

There are many educational institutions and other organizations which publish open access ebooks. Penn State University Press is just one of them. But I liked what I saw when I ran across their webpage with them today, wanted to share the information with you, and also find out what treasures that you may have found among PSU Press' open access ebooks.