My digital and physical content strategy bookshelf is increasing in value.

In fact, when I bought an ebook that cost over 20 EUR just last week, I resolved that my collection has now reached the status of a financial asset.

You can view my content strategy bookshelf on my Goodreads profile.

Books are expensive and I am not going to begrudge anyone, who is looking to decrease their educational budget spending by searching for free content strategy books.

I hear you, I weep with you, I come to your rescue.

I have compiled a list of completely free digital content strategy books that you can access on the internet today. Most of them come from the Internet Archive and while not always the latest version, they get the job done. You have to create a free Internet Archive account to borrow books.

I also include a list of books and ebooks that you can access with your university login – a perk of being a student. FH Joanneum has a list of research resources that you can access via authenticated institution access on and off-campus.

Free content strategy books

These books are available in a variety of formats: digitalised books, PDFs, websites, and ebooks. I marked the format in brackets. The list is ordered by title alphabetically.

C

Collaborate: Bring People Together Around Digital Projects by Ellen de Vries via GatherContent by Bynder (web book, free ebook available if you fill in a lead form)

Content Delivery: Deliver High Quality Website Content, on Time and in Budget by Liam King via GatherContent by Bynder (web book, free ebook available if you fill in a lead form)

Content Management Bible, 2nd Edition, by Bob Boiko via Yumpu (web book)

Content Management Bible as a podcast – Part 1 of the Content Management Bible recorded as podcast episodes by Deane Barker in his The Content Management Bible Podcast

Content Operations from Start to Scale: Perspectives from Industry Experts by Carlos Evia (free PDF, ePub, Mobi formats)

Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project by
Margot Bloomstein via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Content Transformation: An Introduction to Enterprise Content Ops and Content Strategy by Scriptorium (free PDF available if you fill in a lead form)

Context and Semantics for Knowledge Management: Technologies for Personal Productivity by Paul Warren

Customer-centric Marketing: Supporting Sustainability in the Digital Age by Neil Richardson via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

D

Design and Emotion: the Experience of Everyday Things by International Conference on Design and Emotion via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Designing the Search Experience: the Information Architecture of Discovery by Tony Russell-Rose and Tyler Tate via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Designing the Search Experience: the Information Architecture of Discovery by Tony Russell-Rose and Tyler Tate via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

F

Future Interaction Design, edited by Antti Pirhonen, Pertti Saariluoma, Hannakaisa Isomäki, Chris Roast via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

H

How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert (web book)

I

Information Anxiety by Richard Saul Wurman via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville via ScienceDirect (for free but chapters are split into multiple PDFs)

K

Knowledge Management Systems [electronic resource]: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management by Ronald Maier via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

L

Lead with Content: How to Put Content at the Centre of Digital Transformation by Padma Gillen via GatherContent by Bynder (free ebook available if you fill in a lead form)

Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works by Janice (Ginny) Redish via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works by Janice (Ginny) Redish via ScienceDirect (for free but chapters are split into multiple PDFs)

M

Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design by Lisa Welchman via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Marketing in Context: Setting the Scene by Christopher E. Hackley via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

R

Real World Content Modeling: A Field Guide to CMS Features and Architecture by Deane Barker (web book)

Resilient Web Design by Jeremy Keith (available as web book, PDF in portrait format, PDF in landscape format, ePub, and Mobi)

S

Selling Content: How to Sell High-value Content Services to grow your agency by Robert Mills via GatherContent by Bynder (free ebook available if you fill in a lead form)

Statistics without tears by Derek Rowntree via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

T

The Brand Challenge: Adapting Branding to Sectorial Imperatives via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

The Design of Implicit Interactions by Wendy Ju via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

The Digital Crown: Winning at Content on the Web by Ahava Leibtag via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray and Nick Mann via Internet Archive (digitalised book, no login required)

The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane (free online version)

The Enterprise Data Model: a Framework for Enterprise Data Architecture by Andy Graham via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

The IT Payoff: Measuring the Business Value of Information Technology Investments by Sarv Devaraj via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

The Little Handbook of Statistical Practice by Gerard E. Dallal, Ph.D (web book)

The Medium is The Massage by Marshall McLuhan via Internet Archive (digitalised book, no login required)

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (English Edition) by Christopher Booker via Internet Archive (digitalised book, no login required)

The Web Content Style Guide: an Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors, and Managers by Gerry McGovern via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

This Means This, This Means That: a User’s Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Time is Money: the Business Value of Web Performance by Tammy Everts via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices by Deane Barker (web book)

Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices by Deane Barker via Internet Archive (digitalised book)

Banner photo by Aneta Pawlik on Unsplash.