What Are eBooks?
Ebooks are electronic versions of books that are generally accessible via the Internet. Some ebooks are available only through a library, others come with a fee, while others are freely accessible on the web.
Can any book be accessible as an ebook?
For freely accessible eBook sites, only books in the public domain, or books that are no longer protected by copyright law such as the classics, can be downloaded and viewed in their entirety. Contemporary books are generally available through your library’s subscription database services such as NetLibrary.
How do you read an eBook?
The layout of eBooks varies from site to site. In general, eBook providers will supply a standard navigation system such as arrows to turn to the next page or hyperlinks to chapter titles or headings. Some producers of eBooks allow you to “turn pages” with a simulation of page turning.
Because the entire text is provided electronically, readers of eBooks must be either willing to read the text from the computer screen or print selected pages of the text. Some eBook providers, such as NetLibrary, restrict the amount of printing you can do from their books.
What kind of eBooks do I have access to through TexShare?
NetLibrary is TexShare’s subscription eBook provider. With NetLibrary, you have access to the full text of thousands of eBooks covering a wide range of topics. Because this is a subscription service paid for by the library, NetLibrary’s collection includes contemporary books as well as books in the public domain.
To learn more about NetLibrary, see the
How does NetLibrary work?
NetLibrary is like an electronic version of the actual library. You can search for books not only by keyword, author, title, but you can also search every word of the electronic book - its eContent.
Once you find the book you want, you can either view the contents for 15 minutes or check it out for an extended amount of time.
If you see the message "All copies are in use," it means that other users are viewing all the full-text eContent copies of the title that your library owns. You can view the Table of Contents for the full-text eContent title and you can choose to be notified by email when a copy of the title becomes available.
Can I access NetLibrary from home?
Yes, you can use NetLibrary at home if your library is a member of TexShare, it provides remote access to the databases, and you've gotten the appropriate password from them.
Are there other ways to access eBooks?
Yes! There are lots of websites devoted to providing access to free eBooks. Check out these selected websites for access to free e-books.
Bartelby: access to reference books, classic fiction and nonfiction, and poems
http://www.bartleby.com/
Digital Book Index provides access to thousands of sites providing eBooks.
http://www.digitalbookindex.com/search001a.htm
Bibliomania has classic literature, reference books, and religious texts.
http://www.bibliomania.com/index.html
Google Book Search is digitizing whole libraries of books, many of which are copyright free.
http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
This page was written by Sandra Littletree in Spring 2006.
This page was revised by Lisa Charbonnet in Spring 2007.
INF 382S: Library Instruction and Information Literacy, taught by Dr. Loriene Roy
School of Information,
The University of Texas at Austin