Oxford, Rice, Open U Add to iTunes U Electronic Book Collection

Three institutions--Oxford University, Rice University, and Open University--have added e-books for free download through iTunes U, Apple's educational area in its iTunes Store. Each is taking a unique approach to the selection of its e-books, but all are using the EPUB format.
EPUB (for electronic publication) is a standard created by the International Digital Publishing Forum, a consortium of publishers such as O'Reilly Media, other companies such as Adobe and Cengage Learning, and organizations like the Internet Archive. All files in this format end with the extension EPUB. They can be read on most smart phones and e-readers.
Britain's Oxford has made Shakespeare's First Folio available in the EPUB format. The 36 texts, which include their original spelling, have been prepared by the staff of Oxford University Press' Shakespeare Department. The university has also published six plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare, including The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. The Tempest, one of the works made available, is about 95 kilobytes in size. Recently, Oxford had its 5 millionth download of audio and video materials from iTunes U.
"It's great to have released free EPUBs of both First Folio Shakespeare plays and lesser known works. I hope that this material will be enjoyed as widely as possible," said Emma Smith, lecturer in English literature at Oxford, whose lectures on iTunes U, "Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre," have been favorites with listeners too.
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