Downloading eBooks to the iPhone Using Google Books and Stanza Software

I am doing the final preparation for a Writing for Publication workshop this week.  I discovered that I can download some free eBooks, such as Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing and Isabel Hampton Robb's Nursing.  What wonderful resources for courses such as Introduction to Nursing!! 

I wanted to see ways that faculty and students could take an advantage of the eBooks, using a desktop, laptop, PDA, or Smartphone.  I had downloaded Stanza software for the desktop a few weeks ago.  I was able to save the e-book to may iPhone.  This particular feature makes Stanza software superior to Kindle (which can only access books on the Amazon web site) in my opinion.  Stanza software is able to use many file formats (See figure below).

Google books allowed me to save the Nightingale and Hampton Robb books as PDF and ePub file formats.  I chose ePub (Open eBook) for the download.  The steps for transferring the eBook from the computer to the iPhone are noted below.

1. Open Stanza desktop>File>Open menu and selected the eBook from where it is saved.
   
2. Go to Stanza Tools and make sure that Enable Sharing is selected.
3. Connect the iPhone to the computer or make sure that it is connected to the same wireless network as the computer with Stanza desktop.
4. Open Stanza on the iPhone.
5. From the library menu, select Shared Books>Your computer's name.
6. One the desktop computer, grant permission to share the book.
7. Select the book you want to download.

 The entire process took only a couple of minutes and was really easy to do.  The information on how to download eBooks from Stanza is on the software Frequently Asked Questions.

PS - Google Books does have information about copyright and how to avoid copyright infringement.