Paul and Rosemary Trible Library

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E-Books

Electronic books are available through many providers, including some free collections, some by subscription only, and some that are a combination of free and subscription-only materials. Please note that users may be required to download special software to access some materials. Users are also responsible for complying with any copyright, licensing or other notices on individual sites.

NetLibrary
The collection of over 16,000 books covers a wide range of topics. It includes academic works and some popular works. Works of fiction are also available. NetLibrary is the main subscription service for the library's collection of e-books. These books can also be accessed through the library's online catalog.

The NetLibrary collection contains a mixture of subscription items selected by the library and additional free materials. On-campus access is available to all library patrons. Off campus access is available only to CNU students, faculty and staff (access instructions.) Due to copyright restrictions users can only print one page at a time while viewing a book. Most of the books can not be downloaded. The collection can be searched by author, title, subject, keyword and full-text. Additional searches and the ability to combine searches can be found under the advanced search link. While on-campus, users can create a free account that provides additional options for using NetLibrary.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
This collection currently contains approximately 20 reference e-books. Topics covered are: Arts, Business, Environment, History, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Science, and Social Sciences. This is a subscription collection. Off campus access is available only to CNU students, faculty and staff (access instructions.)

Oxford Reference
This collection currently contains over 170 fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Topics covered include: General Reference and Language to Science and Medicine, and from Humanities and Social Sciences to Business and Professional resources. This is a subscription collection. Off campus access is available only to CNU students, faculty and staff (access instructions.)

CIAO - Columbia International Affairs Online
In addition to other resources, the CIAO database provides access to e-books from a wide variety of publishers. The books cover topics related to international affairs. Users can browse the collection by publisher, author, title or subject. Users may also use the available search feature to find books (click in the box next to books on the search screen.) Please note that some of these e-books contain only partial full-text. This is a subscription database. Off campus access is available only to CNU students, faculty and staff (access instructions.)

American Memory Collection by the Library of Congress
This free collection of the Library of Congress contains access to digital versions of books, plays, maps, and other items of historical significance. It covers a wide range of topic areas. Use the available search to locate items or browse through this extensive collection. It is a free collection.

askSam
Provides access to a variety of free digital books available for searching and downloading. Topics include Classic Literature, Legislative Texts, Legal & Judicial, Government Reports and Political. The e-books are searchable. Users may also need to download the free askSam viewer.

Bartleby.com
"... publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge for the home, classroom, and desktop of each and every Internet participant." This site provides free access to reference tools such as: the Columbia Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of World History, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, the American Heritage Dictionary, thesauri, quotations, and much more. The site also includes the full-text of poetry anthologies, fiction and non-fiction works. The site can be searched or browsed. It is a free collection.

E-Book Library from the Electronic Text Center at UVA
Access over 2,100 publicly-available ebooks including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, American history, Shakespeare, African-American documents, the Bible, and much more. Each text on this list can be accessed in HTML (web version) for online viewing, and can be downloaded as both a MS Reader E-book for the Microsoft Reader and a Palm-readable text for the Palm Reader. Texts marked Illustrated contain book illustrations; currently, the images exist in the web version only with the exception of those in the Illustrated Classics ebook section.

NCBI
A collection of free biomedical books from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

The Online Books Page
"The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all." The site was developed and is maintained by John Mark Ockerbloom of the University of Pennsylvania. The site provides an index to over 20,000 works in various formats available on the internet. It also includes a list of links to large, general, mostly English language digitized collections. It is a free collection.

Open Book from the National Academies Press
This is a collection that provides access to over 3,000 e-books for free. Others can be purchased from the site. Available topics are: Agriculture, Behavioral & Social Sciences, Biology & Life Sciences, Computers & Information Technology, Conflict & Security Issues, Earth Sciences, Education, Energy & Energy Conservation, Engineering & Technology, Environment & Environmental Studies, Food & Nutrition, Health & Medicine, Industry & Labor, Math, Chemistry & Physics, Science: Past & Future, Space & Aeronautics, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Policy for Science & Technology. Browse through these categories or use the search engine.

"The National Academies Press is proud to be one of the only online bookstores that provides anyone in the connected world with free page-by-page access to all of our books. We began doing this in 1996. We were pleased to be able to expand this effort recently by providing many of our books in a downloadable format. However, our ability to continue to offer free content depends on a stream of revenue to offset the cost of doing so. Therefore, we continue to charge for some of our books in PDF format."

The Open Library
Created by the Internet Archive, this website provides free online access to important books from around the world. Books in the public domain can be downloaded, printed and shared for free.

Project Gutenberg One of the earliest internet projects to digitize and provide access to electronic books and texts for free. Begun in 1971 by Michael Hart who was joined by volunteers who shared his vision that "it would be a really good idea if lots of famous and important texts were freely available to everyone in the world." Gutenberg can be searched or browsed. Books on Gutenberg cover a wide range of topics, languages and dates. "Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use (for complete details, see the license page)." Those interested in volunteering can find information on the site on how to become involved with the project.

The Universal Library
Hosted by Carnegie Mellon University provides a list of digital collections including their own CMU Classics Collection. It is a free collection.