Local libraries have scant technical resources.
Actually, I've perused some of their courseware. Basically, it's just lecture notes, no big thing. You have to buy the text book with your own dough. Some of the lecture notes are mostly just hand drawn vugraphs. You do get problem sets, some solutions.
You cannot contact the faculty; you don't get a beaver ring, or a grade or a transcript.
I have found some excellent courseware on the Web, MIT's didn't really impress me.
It's been years since I saw "The Paper Chase", but IIRC, the students at Harvard break into the library and steal the class notes (from long ago) of the great Professor Kingsfield. Having these notes, they are sure, will reveal to them the deep secrets of Contract Law.
Of course, when they look at them, they learn that his notes are a lot like anybody's notes. The secret to the knowledge isn't in the notes -- it's in the minds of the people who think deeply on the subject.
That being said, I think MIT is doing a good thing here. It's not the Holy Grail, but it still has value.
>> you don't get a beaver ring
What's a "beaver ring"?
I imagine it's *not* what I could imagine it might be.
It would be better if they had filmed the classes and provided the video.
However, that might give too many people ideas. Why do we spend so much money re-teaching the same courses over and over again, year after year.
Can you imagine doing software that way? re-writing the same code every time you want to accomplish a task again?
Why can't we find the best teacher in the country for each subject class, have them film the perfect class lecture series, and just show them in the classes.
You'd still have teachers in the class to answer questions and to expound on the information, but you'd know the material was being conveyed by an expert, and you could probably get by with fewer teachers. For example, a teacher could take two classes, with the tapes taking up half of each class, while the teacher came in for the other half -- doubling class sizes without decreasing the per-teacher ratio.
Of course, you would never get away with this. In fact, teachers are using more and more online and taped material in classes, but without decreasing the number of teachers OR their pay, even though they are doing less work as they rely more and more on the programmed material.
Best find a way to get a degree so you can prove it to a prospective employer. If you don't need a job, you are on your own, as you already know.