E-books are books that exist in digital form, and are readable on computers or other electronic devices. Hiebert Library has more e-books in its collection than it does print books, so this is a very important part of the resources available to our library users. All of our e-books are available simply by clicking on a link from your search results list. After performing a search, you will often see results for e-books, which include a link for you to click.
Once you click on this link, you will be taken to the e-book provider's website, where you will be able to view the book. You will not be required to download any additional software or apps in order to view it.
ProQuest E-Book Central
Most of our e-books are available through ProQuest. They have an excellent set of tutorials explaining how to use e-books on their site. We recommend that you read the tutorials for the online reader and the bookshelf. A video tutorial also is available.
Creating your own personal ProQuest account is an excellent idea, since it allows you to save e-books for future use, highlight text, and make notes in books. Read the bookshelf guide (linked above) for instructions on creating an account. Once you've created an account, we recommend that you bookmark the page for easy access later. You can also find a login link on the library home page (click on the Library Resources tab to find it).
Limiting your search results to show only e-books
In some cases, you may want to see search results that show only e-books. Once you've gotten a results list for your search term(s) from the discovery service, look for a gray box on the left side of the screen, entitled Refine Your Search. Choose the option for E-book full text online.
Finding other free e-books on the Web
There are numerous other sources of free digitized books on the Web. Many of the these books are in the public domain, and therefore usually quite old. While they aren't always the best for current research, they can often be useful when looking for historical perspectives on research topics.