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Research Guides

Sociology

Selected E-books Databases

Multidisciplinary

Historical

References 

Psychology

Science and Technology

E-Books FAQs

How Do I...

Print an e-book or read an e-book offline?

A few of the e-book databases allow downloading and/or printing of individual chapters, but most have strict limits on the amount of content that may be copied, downloaded, or printed within a defined time period or by a single user. The exact limits vary from database to database, and may even vary by title within a given database. (See the comparisons below). Attempts to copy and paste, print, or download large amounts of content will result in the temporary loss of the patron's access at the very least, and in extreme cases could shut down access to the resource for the entire campus.

Create links to an e-book or to specific sections or locations within the book?

If the e-book has a record in the Libraries Catalog, you can right-click with your mouse on the link entitled "Connect to the full text of this electronic book", and choose the "Copy shortcut" (IE browser) or "Copy link location" (FF browser) from the right-click menu to capture the url to your clipboard. Note that off-campus users of this link will be asked for a TAMU netID and password before being allowed to access the book full-text. To link to the book's catalog record, click on the tab "Long View", and scroll down to the Permanent Link field in the record.

No record in the Libraries Catalog? or you want to link to a specific chapter? If the database shows the digital object identifier (DOI) for the book or its individual chapters, you can create a link by adding the DOI to the starting address https//dx.doi.org/. For example, https//dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-35730-0_2 will link to a chapter "Spatial Analysis in Geography" from the text Spatial Analysis and GeoComputation published in the Springer Online Books database. To create an off-campus version of the link for TAMU users, add the TAMU login EZproxy prefix to the link, e.g., https://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-35730-0_2.

Some of the large ebook databases, notably netLibrary and ebrary, will let you create a free account and save your favorite books, notes, and bookmarks. However, note that the amount of text that you are allowed to copy and print or save in or from your notes may be subject to the same restrictions as copying from the content of the ebook titles themselves.

For more tips and examples about linking to E-books and other library resources, see the resource guide "Creating Durable Links to Library Resources" (under construction), or ask a librarian for help.

Suggest an E-Book Purchase?

Use the same Suggest a Purchase request form as for other requests, but, after choosing the format Book/Audiobook, then choose Preferred Format as electronic. The TAMU Libraries is converting to an e-preferred book purchase plan, but note that not all books are available as E-books, and TAMU Libraries has licensing agreements for E-books with certain vendors only. Even if a book is available as an e-book from a vendor with whom TAMU has an agreement, its purchase may be blocked by other factors, such as excessive purchase price or reoccurring maintenance fees, a poor user interface, or onerous digital rights management software.

Database Feature Comparisons and Tips for Using

Number of Simultaneous Users

ebrary     
Varies with title, some are single user license, some multiple user

ENGnetBASE    
Unlimited

netLibrary     
Unlimited for database, but single user at a time per each copy of a title

Knovel     
Unlimited

Referex     
Unlimited

Safari     
Limited to six simultaneous users for the database

Science Direct     
Unlimited

Springer     
Unlimited

Wiley     
Unlimited