E-Books at UMBC
Page Contents
Basics
- E-books are digital editions of texts accessible through the Web or on e-readers (Kindle, Nook, etc.) At this time, the Albin O. Kuhn Library does not provide or support e-readers but continues to investigate them as an option.
- All e-book titles available through the Albin O. Kuhn Library should be readable on a standard PC or Mac. Titles provided by academic or commercial vendors require on-campus access or user validation for off-campus access.
- There is no standard format for e-books. Some providers who offer access to material not in copyright, create texts as .pdfs or .html files for the greatest possible access. Other vendors, who provide access to proprietary material (e.g. Netlibrary or Springer), use software to limit access to subscribing institutions and restrict the number of simultaneous users per title .
- Some vendors and publishers offer options for searching whole collections of titles or reading individual titles on platforms similar to article databases.
- E-books are constantly evolving as publishers and vendors increase the variety and accessibility of titles so becoming familiar with some simple search techniques is important.
Finding E-books: Using Limiters
• Individual e-books are cataloged in the USMAI Catalog just as are print titles. E-books should be identifiable by the designation [electronic resource] in the title to distinguish them from print editions and should have a separate record with access through the Find It button but there are exceptions; government documents and miscellaneous other titles will have the URL for online access in the catalog record.
⇒ E-books in the USM are campus specific, meaning if Towson owns a copy but UMBC does not, UMBC affiliates will not have access to that e-book. Searching for UMBC e-books, therefore, should be done in the UMBC holdings of the catalogusmai. While other searching options, particularly WorldCat UMBC are available, the linking to e-books is not yet reliable enough to recommend it as a primary search tool.
⇒ Limit by Format: the catalog advanced search offers the option to limit by format or location. A search by title, subject, or keyword AND limited to Format = E-Books should return only e-books.
• A typical e-book title record looks like this, 'find it' provides the access :
⇒ Limit by Location: the catalog advanced search allows patrons to find online encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. by limiting to Location = Reference E-Books
• A typical Reference e-book record will look like this:
E-book Collections
Reference E-books
- Many e-books are also marketed in collections, either by individual publishers or vendors, which allows for the full text searching of many titles in a database-type format. Reference e-books are particularly suited to this type of cross-searching and the library offers access to several collections. These can be accessed from the Reference tab on the Library's homepage or by collection name in the Database search.
- Cambridge Histories Online [Title list]
- Gale Virtual Reference Library [Title list]
- Oxford Language Dictionaries Online [Chinese / French / German / Italian / Russian / Spanish ]
- Oxford Reference Online [Title list]
- Sage Reference Online [Title list]
Monograph E-books: vendor searching
- Occasionally someone will refer to a book that's supplied by a specific vendor. To browse e-book titles by vendor use the vendor name as a keyword search and limit to e-book. To date, the Library's largest vendors of proprietary e-books are Netlibrary (9442 titles) and Springer (3723 titles).
Free E-book collections
- The United States Government Printing Office (U.S.G.P.O.) is the largest publisher in the world and many of its titles are now being offered digitally. The Library is a member of the Federal Depository System and regularly loads links to full text government documents. Currently the largest number of e-books in the Library's holdings are government publications (27,000+). To search for these in the catalog use the search strategy outlined above: GPO as keyword and limit format to E-books.
- All Federal Documents online can be searched for in the Worldcat database using the same techniques as in the CatalogUSMAI. Document collections are also available at a new GPO website FDSys that will serve as a central search point and archive for all online government documents going into the future.
- Many older books that are out of copyright are being offered as free e-books by a number of organizations, institutions, and individuals who are willing to invest the time and money to convert print to digital formats. The following sites are considered to be of particular worth:
- Project Gutenberg and its International Affiliates & Partners : The oldest of the free e-book providers, now offering over 100,000 free titles.
- The Internet Archive: Ebooks & Texts : A digital library including documents as well as books
- Open Library : The online catalog for the Internet Archive and other e-book sites, listing titles and linking to available editions.
- Google Books : Search by topic or title, then choose 'Free google ebooks' from the menu at left.
- Library of Congress : The LOC Digital collections include books, documents, photographs, newspapers, oral histories and more.
- Hathi Trust : A partnership of major research institutions and libraries. The catalog includes records for both free and restricted use texts. Often holds multiple editions of the same text.
- Scholars Portal Books : The Canadian equivalent to the Hathi Trust, from the Ontario Council of University Libraries.
- Harvard Digital Collections : A large and growing collection of books, documents, maps and other material from the Harvard libraries.
- National Academies Press : Publications from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. Over 4000 current titles available free as .pdf files.
Additional Information
E-books and other digital collections, whether free or proprietary, are becoming an increasingly important part of the information landscape. Individuals interested in the standards and practices of e-book collection development can consult the Digital Library Standards page of the Library of Congress or the Functional Objectives of the Hathi Trust.Those wishing to keep up with news and develpoments in the online content market can subscribe for free to the online EContent Magazine.
