Are you hungry for knowledge? Well, if you’ve got a filet mignon appetite and a hamburger budget, then get in line as the National Academies Press is offering free PDF downloads of more than 4,000 titles from its exhaustive library.

The mission of the National Academies Press (NAP) – publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council – is to distribute the institutions’ content as widely as possible while maintaining its financial security. The project began in 1994 when the NAP began delivering content to developing countries, and even then 65% of the files were free.

“Our business model has evolved so that it is now financially viable to put this content out to the entire world for free,” said Barbara Kline Pope, executive director for the National Academies Press. “This is a wonderful opportunity to make a positive impact by more effectively sharing our knowledge and analyses.”

Just a quick browse through the titles shows such a wealth of information that one could spend hours choosing alone! You’ll find Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Forensics, Biology, Computers, Education, Health, Industry, Math, and yes… Space and Aeronautics, just to name a few. Based on the performance of NAP’s current free PDFs, projections suggest this change will enhance distribution of PDF reports from about 700,000 downloads per year to more than 3 million by 2013.

Where do you get ’em? Just head toward the NAP Website and have fun!

Original Story Source: National Acadamies News and illustration by School Clip Art.