Ebooks: Home

Ebooks have become prevalent in all aspects of life -- both within the scholarly community and especially in popular reading.  The results of a 2011 survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project bears out the fact that more and more people are reading e-books and using e-book readers.  The Baylor University Libraries started their first e-book collection in 1999/2000 by participating in the first Amigos/netLibrary shared e-book collection.  Now the Baylor Libraries' collection holds nearly 500,000 e-books. 

E-books are like any other new information format (microforms, videos, CDs, DVDs, electronic databases, e-journals, etc.) that has emerged through the years.  The content and purpose of the resource is of primary consideration, and if the format (in this case e-books) best meets those needs, that is the format that is purchased.  Additionally, we place records in OneSearch for e-books that fit our collection profile.  If a particular e-book is used significantly, it is automatically purchased and permanently added to our holdings -- "demand-driven acquisition" -- another way of identifying resources that best meet the needs of our constituents. 

This guide will:

1. Highlight individual e-book collections available from the Baylor University Libraries;
2. Provide updated information on changes in the technology and how it impacts those at Baylor who use the Libraries' e-books; and
3. Provide information on using e-book content from the Baylor Libraries on mobile devices (Kindles, Nooks, iPads, etc.) -- also known as "off-line reading".

Although e-books been around for quite some time, e-books within a library context are still in an evolutionary stage.  It is important to note -- at this time -- the only e-books the Baylor Library has that can be downloaded for off-line reading are from the EBSCO Ebooks collection.  For many other e-book collections, you can often download PDFs of part of the e-book which can then be read on any device that supports a PDF reader.  Particuarly for popular reading, you may want investigate the collection of e-books provided from OverDrive by the Waco-McLennan County Library and obtain a library card if this collection is of interest to you.  For additional information, provided from a group of Texas public libraries, you may want to look at this guide, Ebooks for Texans.

To find e-books in OneSearch, do the following:

1. Search for the title or topic of interest in OneSearch.
2. Within the search results, use the facets on the left sidebar to limit the search to e-books.
3. Select "Available Online" from the "Availability" facet; and
4. Select "Books" or "Book Chapters" from the "Resource Type" facet.

Below is an RSS feed of freely available ebooks that is maintained by John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania Library.