# /edu/ resources Resources and tools for self-education and research, collaboratively sourced. **Table of Contents** - [Research](#research) - [General](#general) - [Newspapers, magazines, journals, etc](#newspapers-magazines-journals-etc) - [The Wikipedia Library](#the-wikipedia-library) - [Search engines](#search-engines) - [Piracy and bypassing paywalls](#piracy-and-bypassing-paywalls) - [Library Genesis (LibGen)](#library-genesis-libgen) - [Z-Library](#z-library) - [Sci-Hub](#sci-hub) - [Bypassing paywalls in news, magazines, etc](#bypassing-paywalls-in-news-magazines-etc) - [Archiving](#archiving) - [/leftypol/ related resources](#leftypol-related-resources) ## Research ### General - [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/) - Free/public e-book library. - [The Internet Archive](https://archive.org/) - Audio, video and ebook library. Make an account and you can freely check out e-books as though it were a physical library. - [TheFreeLibrary](https://www.thefreelibrary.com/) - Research anything, organized by topic. ### Newspapers, magazines, journals, etc - [PressReader](https://www.pressreader.com/) - Find key terms in newspapers and magazines. Helpful for finding sources. - [Nexis newspaper database](https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/professional/nexis/nexis.page) - Searchable database of newspapers similar to the above-mentioned PressReader. - [Chronicling America](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/) - Library of Congress project that lets you search some historical American newspapers. By no means is it an archive of *all* historical newspaper content. ### The Wikipedia Library A list of various resources compiled or provided by the Wikipedia Library, which is a system aiming to help the site's editors gain better access to sources. Some of this requires you to be an active editor on the site to access, some of it doesn't. - [Wikipedia Library Partners](https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/) - Their main program, which provides access to partnered pay-walled content for active Wikipedia editors. - [Find sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Find_sources) - 'Find sources', for finding sources in the first place. Useful for non-editors, too. - [Find your source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Find_your_source) - 'Find your source', for finding a source you already know about but can't access. Just a general advice page, much of it you don't need to be an editor to exploit. - [Talk:Find your source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Find_your_source) - One editor's misplaced advice supplementing the above page. - [Reference desk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RD) - Wikipedia's reference desk. You don't need to be an active editor to ask questions here. - [Find your library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Find_your_library) - Some advice from WPL about finding a library with a source you are seeking (like a book). - [Wikipedia Library Free Resources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library/Free_resources) - Free resources list. Compilation of resources on a plethora of topics usable by non-editors. - [Resource supplement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Unreferenced_articles/Resources) - Supplement to the above page. - [Free English newspaper sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_English_newspaper_sources) - Text-searchable, free to access (no-pay, non-subscription/-membership/-login) online English newspaper sources. - Related: [Rationalwiki's recommended sources](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:Websites) - A lot of this is shit. I still thought it was worth a mention since some of it isn't shit. ### Search engines #### Google - [Google Talk to Books](https://books.google.com/talktobooks/) ([Related projects](https://research.google.com/semanticexperiences/)) - Enter natural language queries, get related books. - [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/) - Google's academic search engine. Unchecking "include citations" on the side can be helpful. - [Google Newspapers](https://news.google.com/newspapers) - Search through newspapers. - Google Books - [google.com/search?q=%22INSERT+TEXT+HERE%22&tbm=bks](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22INSERT+TEXT+HERE%22&tbm=bks) - Search for/through books. - [Google Programmable Wikipedia Search](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Syced/Wikipedia_Reference_Search) - Search through sources considered "reliable" by Wikipedia editors. - Improving your Google search effectiveness: [Video tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPw4PSsi55A) and [article](https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/20-tips-use-google-search-efficiently.html). #### Other - [SearX instances](https://searx.space/) - A list of SearX instances. SearX is a meta-search engine which allows you to search through various other search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, etc) at once while also avoiding being tracked by them. Popular instances of SearX might be blocked by Google et al because of their high traffic. - [JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/) - Academic search engine. By making an account, you can get access to up to 100 papers a month on there for free. You can also use the [analyze tool](https://www.jstor.org/analyze/) which analyzes PDFs for you and shows you a list of papers it thinks are related. Combine this with [Sci-Hub](#sci-hub) for maximum effectiveness. ## Piracy and bypassing paywalls ### Library Genesis (LibGen) The largest free library in history. There are multiple domains from which one can access it, some with slightly different user interfaces. Here are some: - [gen.lib.rus.ec](https://gen.lib.rus.ec/) - [libgen.rs](https://libgen.rs/) - [libgen.is](https://libgen.is/) - [libgen.gs](https://libgen.gs/) - [libgen.lc](https://libgen.lc/) - [libgen.fun](https://libgen.fun/) If you have trouble accessing LibGen (perhaps known domains are down), try: - Checking the domains listed in the site's [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis) (though these might be out of date). - Checking the [/r/libgen subreddit](https://old.reddit.com/r/libgen/) (sidebar or recent posts). - [This page](https://libgen.onl/library-genesis/) which lists some mirrors and appears to be frequently updated. ### Z-Library LibGen alternative, with a friendlier UI. Criticized by some for getting most of its catalogue from LibGen, adding a few rare books over it without contributing back, and charging money for unlimited access. - [z-lib.org](https://zlibrary.org) - [b-ok.cc](https://b-ok.cc/) ### Sci-Hub "Removing barriers in the way of science", Sci-Hub is a mirror/archive for academic and scientific literature. Using DOI codes or even JSTOR links one can find a good deal of papers available here. - [sci-hub.se](https://sci-hub.se/) (main site) - [sci-hub.st](https://sci-hub.st/) - [Mirror list by /r/scihub subreddit](https://old.reddit.com/r/scihub/comments/jg8ka2/official_scihub_website_directory_scihub_project/) - The project's social media: [Backup Twitter](https://twitter.com/Sci_Hub_tweets), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sci.hub.org) and [VK](https://vk.com/sci_hub). Alexandra Elbakyan, the project's founder/maintainer, also has a [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ringo_ring) and a [blog](https://engineuring.wordpress.com/). - [Archived Twitter thread](https://archive.today/KRs2x) by Elbakyan on what to do if a paper is not available on Sci-Hub. ### Bypassing paywalls in news, magazines, etc - [12 Foot Ladder](https://12ft.io/) - Bypass most news paywalls. - [Outline](https://outline.com/) - Bypass news paywalls, gives you the ability to annotate an article and URL to share this with others. - [Bypass Paywalls browser extension](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome) - Extension for Chrome-based and Firefox browsers. Tip: some webpage archiving tools can also help you bypass paywalls. See the entry for those below. ## Archiving - [The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/) - Holy grail of webpage archiving. - [archive.today](https://archive.today/) - Home to various archive sites (.md, .ph, .is, etc). - [GhostArchive](https://ghostarchive.org/) - Not as popular as the above two, still useful. - Google webpage cache. Purges itself frequently. [webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:INSERTLINKHERE](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:INSERTLINKHERE). - [Perma.cc](https://perma.cc/) - Scholar-focused web archive, good for citations. - [Wikipedia Help page on Archiving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Archiving_a_source) ## /leftypol/ related resources - [Welcome Post](https://leftypol.org/leftypol/res/163675.html) which links site resources. - [Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread](https://leftypol.org/leftypol/res/296564.html). - [Reading general](https://leftypol.org/leftypol/res/285223.html). - [Leftybooru](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list) - Our image repository. Search by tags. Useful tags: [charts](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=chart), [graphs](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=graph), [debunks](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=debunk), [data](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=data), [infographics](https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=infographic). - [/marx/](http://eregime.org/index.php?showforum=719) - Forum run by Ismail, notable for reasons explained [here](https://archive.today/cDhZe). Ismail is a competent reference desk operator, especially for topics directly concerning Marxism. Note, as mentioned the /meta/ thread, that: the site doesn't currently have a standard HTTPS related certificate. This means that you should assume anything that you post on that website is exposed. This includes passwords used to register to the site. This remains true until the site gets such a certificate. If you register, use a password you have never used and never will use anywhere else. You can post pseudo-anonymously as a "guest" if you prefer that.