Subject Guides

How To Do Library Research

Web pages and other resources for research assistance.

Guide Contents

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The Binghamton University Libraries provides access to a wide variety of ebooks. Certain ebook features (e.g., printing, copy/paste, offline reading, downloading to mobile devices) will vary by vendor and publisher. This guide provides instructions for finding, accessing, and using ebooks. If you have any questions, just Ask a Librarian.

Searching for ebooks

Enter your keyword(s) in Find it! and click the search button. To limit the results to ebooks, use the filters on the left - select "Full Text Online" for availability and "Books" for material type.

Once you find an ebook you want to read, click the "Online access" link. At this point, you may be prompted to log in with your BU login After logging in, you will be redirected to the ebook.

If the link says "# versions of this record exist. See all versions" instead of "Online access" that means the book is available as both an ebook and a print book from the Libraries. To access the ebook, click that link then click the "Online access" link on the record for the ebook.

Search any of the specific ebook collections listed below. Or use the ebooks search tab to search across many major collections at once.

ACLS Humanities E-Book
Collection of over 1400 full-text, cross searchable books covering topics of interest to historians and humanities scholars.
A collection selected by historians for their continuing importance to students and scholars. Areas include: African, American, Asian, Latin American, European (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern), Middle Eastern, World/Comparative, Byzantine/Mediterranean and Australasian/Oceanian history, plus history of the Native Peoples of the Americas and of Science and Technology.
Colloquium Digital Library of Life Sciences
Collection of colloquia covering biology and related sciences. Each colloquium is 50- 100-pages long and synthesizes an important research or development topic. They are authored by a prominent contributor to the field.
COLLOQUIUM is an innovative information resource for research communities in the biomedical/ life sciences. It combines authoritative content with advanced digital delivery to create a resource that is substantially more useful and dynamic than traditional print and digital publications. The basic component of the library is a 50- to 120-page electronic book that synthesizes an essential scientific topic, authored by a prominent researcher in the field. It is organized by series, each managed by a prominent consulting leader in the field. The series editor oversees topic and author selection, as well as peer review to assure quality.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
EBSCOhost eBook Collection
Provides full text access to thousands of electronic books across all areas, including ebooks provided by SUNYConnect and public domain ebooks that are free to everyone. For more information on downloading and printing, see the Finding and Using Ebooks guide.
You can search and browse e-books simply by following the links from our web site or, once you are at the site, you can create a free account and "check out" ebooks to view their full text. See http://libraryguides.binghamton.edu/ebooks for more information.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Over 180,000 full-text books based on the English Short Title Catalogue.
Includes over 33 million full-text searchable images of books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more published in the UK during the 18th century plus thousands from elsewhere. Although primarily in English, the database also includes many items published in other European languages.
English Short Title Catalogue
Provides extensive descriptions and holdings information for letterpress materials printed in Great Britain or any of its dependencies in any language - as well as for materials printed in English anywhere else in the world from 1473-1800.
Serves as a comprehensive bibliography of the hand-press era and as a census of surviving copies. Includes materials ranging from Shakespeare and Greek New Testaments to anonymous ballads, broadsides, songs, advertisements and other ephemera. Extensive indexing includes imprint word, place, genre, and year as well as copy-specific notes. Searches may be limited by date, language and country of publication.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Thousands of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources that can be cross-searched.
Index Translationum
Contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979. Covers all disciplines: literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so forth.
KSI e-book
The database includes 4,500 titles of ebooks on various subjects. It contains monographs of national prominent professors and dissertations and theses in fields of humanities, social sciences, natural, medical science, arts and physical educations etc. Language: Korean.
Oxford Text Archive This link opens in a new window
Includes several thousand electronic texts and linguistic corpora, in a variety of languages. Its holdings include electronic editions of works by individual authors, standard reference works such as the Bible and mono-/bilingual dictionaries, and a range of language corpora.
Perseus Classics Collection
Features several hundred works of classical Greek and Roman authors, both in the original language and in translation (mostly older but standard editions such as the Loeb). It also includes the Latin Vulgate, the Greek New Testament, and an English Bible text. From Tufts University.
Proquest Ebook Central
Ebooks across all subjects. Must login with PODS username and password, even if on-campus. For more information on downloading and printing, see the Finding and Using Ebooks guide.
Includes the Academic Complete ebook collection.and the Sustainability Ebook Library
R2 Digital Library
A web-based digital book collection. BU Libraries has access to selected nursing and health science itles.

In addition to the ebooks available from the Binghamton University Libraries, there are many open access or public domain ebooks that can be accessed via the following links.

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
A collection of public domain documents with a focus on American and English literature and Western Philosophy. Books are searchable through a search bar or can be browsed by author, title, or tag.
Bartleby.com
Online source for reference, poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Reference works contained include Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, Gray’s Anatomy, World Factbook, and Strunk’s Elements of Style. Titles can be searched by those categories and indexes are provided by author, subject, and title.
Bibliomania.com
Site includes over 2,000 free classics as well as reference books, biographies, and research works.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): Library and Information Science
1265 Academic peer-reviewed books from 35 publishers.
Google Books
Works just like web search. If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy.

HathiTrust
Digitized materials from member institutions and libraries are freely available to the public for items not under copyright restrictions (generally pre-1923 and most government documents). Downloading and other functions may be limited.
HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future.

International Children's Digital Library
A multicultural, multilingual digital collection of children's literature from around the world.
Internet Archive: Ebook and Texts Archive
"The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books."
OAOPEN Library
Freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences, including titles from Oxford University Press and other European publishers.
Open Knowledge Repository
The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
Open Library
Books are available to read online, borrow (in eBook format), or purchase. Open Library is searchable by subject, author, or through a search bar. Classic literature titles are available for free in eBook format.
Open SUNY Textbooks
Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This pilot initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.
Project Gutenberg
An archive of public domain books available in a variety of formats including plain text, PDF, HTML and EPUB. Books can be searched by author or title. An RSS feed is available for tracking site additions. An online and offline catalog is included.
Science Books Online
Free science ebooks, textbooks, lecture notes, monographs, and other science related documents. All texts are available for free reading online, or for downloading in various formats.
UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004
Contains almost 2,000 books from academic presses on a range of topics. All books are available to University of California students and staff, and over 500 titles are available to the public. Books can be browsed by author, title, or subject, or a search bar can be used.
University of Michigan Historical Mathematics Collection
A growing library of books selected from the University of Michigan mathematics collection that have been digitized to improve access and to preserve the content of these books. All of the books in this collection were published in the 19th or early 20th century.
University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions
Pittsburgh Press has made available hundreds of their out of print titles, free for download. To read, click on "Add to Bookbag," and then once viewing your bookbag, click on Download. All books download as .txt files.

You can search for ebooks in FindIt!, specialized collections, and open access collections. When accessing these ebooks you'll need to log in with your PODS username and password.

"Requesting" a book - SUNY Pilot Lending Program

In some cases, an e-book will lead you to a "Request Access" link, will a form that will ask for your name, email and campus. You will receive an email from info@slcny.lbanswers.com within 48 hours with more information about how to access the title Generally, you will have access to a title for two weeks at a time.

These titles are shared among a group of SUNY schools, and for considerations such as course reserve and research use, should be viewed in the same light as other items obtained through interlibrary loan and resource sharing.

Problems or questions with books in this program should be directed to mainill@binghamton.edu .

Reading online

The full text of most ebooks can be read online on a laptop or desktop computer through the vendor-supplied platform.

If you are reading an ebook online, the platform may time out. To prevent this from happening, it's recommended that you download the ebook when possible. Options for downloading vary greatly – for more details, consult the following sections of this guide.

Some ebooks only allow a limited number of users to read online at the same time. If you are blocked from viewing an ebook, it's likely that someone else has the book open. Access will be allowed when they close the ebook.

Downloading to your computer

Some vendors require you to set up a free account in order to download ebooks. This is not an account maintained by Binghamton University Libraries or Binghamton University.

Some ebooks can be downloaded as unprotected PDFs, but most will only be available as DRM-protected PDF, ACSM, or ePUB files which require external software to open. The recommended software is Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) which is free and compatible with PCs, Macs, and most e-readers and mobile devices. In order to use ADE, you will need a free Adobe account (also called an Adobe ID) which you can set up at accounts.adobe.com. ADE is not available on PODS computers or Libraries computers at this time.

If the publisher permissions for an ebook include "Download Restricted", you will not be able to download the ebook. For more information on publisher permissions in Ebsco books, consult the Ebsco tab of the Printing and Copy/Pasting section below.

An EbscoHost account is required to download ebooks. You can create an account for free by following these steps:

Click "Sign In" at the top of the screen on the Ebsco ebook platform or in any Ebsco database

Click "Create a new account"
Fill out the account information and click "Save changes"

[If you have not created an EbscoHost account, you'll be prompted to do so when you start the download process]

Before downloading an ebook, you should install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) on your computer, then authorize your computer with your Adobe ID.

Follow these steps to download an ebook to your computer:

Open the ebook you want to download and click the "Download" button.
The number of days the ebook will be available will be displayed. For some ebooks there will be a dropdown menu that you can use to adjust the number of days.
Select "ePUB" for the format.
Click the "Checkout & Download" button.
Open the file in ADE.

If the publisher permissions include "Available for Full Download", you will be able to download the ebook in full or by chapter. For more information on publisher permissions in ProQuest ebooks, consult the ProQuest Ebook Central tab of the Printing and Copy/Pasting section below.

Follow these steps to download the full text of an ebook to your computer:

Open the ebook you want to download and click "Full Download".
Select "Laptop Desktop" as the device type, and select personal or public computer, then click "Continue".
Download ADE or click "Done with this step" if you have previously downloaded ADE.
If available, use the dropdown menus to select the download period and format.
Click "Download Your Book".
Open the file in ADE.

Follow these steps to download specific chapters of an ebook to your computer:

Open the ebook you want to download and click "Chapter Download".
Click "Check Out Ebook" (the loan length does not matter -- you will still be able to access the PDF after the loan expires).
Click the "Chapter Download" button again.
Use the dropdown menus to select your preferred citation style and the chapter to download, then click "Continue".
Click "Open PDF".
Open the file in any PDF reader.

ACLS Humanities ebook
Individual pages may be downloaded as pdf files by clicking on the "PDF" button at the top of the screen. Entire books are not available for checkout/download.

Duke University Press
Chapters of ebooks available on the Duke University Press platform can be downloaded as DRM-free PDFs.

IGI ebooks
IGI Press books cannot be downloaded, but individual chapters can be saved for future use.

Oxford Scholarship Online
Chapters can be downloaded by opening up the chapter of your choice and clicking on the "View PDF" link to the left of the chapter title. (All options and limits will vary by title.)

Downloading to your mobile device

There are several free apps that can be used to download and read ebooks on mobile devices. The recommended app is Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) which is available for Apple devices, Android devices, and many others (see the complete list of compatible devices). In order to use ADE, you will need a free Adobe account (also called an Adobe ID) which you can set up at accounts.adobe.com.

If the publisher permissions for an ebook include "Download Restricted", you will not be able to download the ebook to a mobile device. You may be able to read the ebook in your mobile device's internet browser by selecting "Full Site" at the bottom of the screen, but the interface is not optimized for mobile devices and will timeout frequently. For more information on publisher permissions in Ebsco books, consult the Ebsco tab of the Printing and Copy/Pasting section below.

An EbscoHost account is required to download ebooks. You can create an account for free by following these steps:

On the mobile site, click the gear icon at the top right corner of the screen, then click "Sign In", then click the "Create a new Account" link. (On the desktop site, you can click "Sign In" at the top of the screen.)
Fill out the account information and click "Save changes".

[If you have not created an EbscoHost account, you'll be prompted to do so when you start the download process]

Before downloading an ebook, you should install Adobe Digital Editions (iOS app, android app) on your mobile device. (Although Ebsco does offer its own mobile app, we highly recommend using Adobe Digital Editions because it is compatible with ebooks from multiple vendors.)

Follow these steps to download an ebook to your mobile device:

Open the ebook you want to download and click the "Download" button.
The number of days the ebook will be available will be displayed. For some ebooks there will be a drop down menu that you can use to adjust the number of days.
Select "ePub" for the format.
Click the "Checkout & Download" button.

If you found the ebook while searching on your mobile device...

The ebook will download as "URLLink.acsm". Open that file in the ADE app.
You may be prompted to authorize the device with your Adobe ID before you can access the ebook.

If you found the ebook while searching on your computer...

The ebook will download as "URLLink.acsm". Open that file in ADE on your computer.
On your mobile device, open the ADE app. The ADE app and the ADE software on your computer must be authorized with the same Adobe ID. The ebook should appear in your Library. If the ebook does not appear, try clicking "Refresh" in the app's navigation menu.

Follow these steps to download an ebook to your Apple or Android mobile device:

In order to access an ebook from ProQuest Ebook Central on your Apple or Android mobile device, you will first need to download the full text of the ebook to your computer. Steps 1a-1e explain how to do this.

1a. On your computer, open the ebook you want to download and click "Full Download".
1b. Select "Laptop Desktop" as the device type, and select personal or public computer, then click "Continue".
1c. Download ADE or click "Done with this step" if you have previously downloaded ADE.
1d. If available, use the dropdown menus to select the download period and format.
1e. Click "Download Your Book".

Open the ebook in ADE on your computer.
Open the ADE app on your mobile device (the ADE app and the ADE software on your computer must be authorized with the same Adobe ID). The ebook should appear in your Library. If the ebook does not appear, try clicking "Refresh" in the app's navigation menu.

Follow these steps to download an ebook to your Nook:

In order to access an ebook from ProQuest Ebook Central on your Nook, you will first need to download the full text of the ebook to your computer. Steps 1a-1e explain how to do this.

1a. On your computer, open the ebook you want to download and click "Full Download".
1b. Select "Laptop Desktop" as the device type, and select personal or public computer, then click "Continue".
1c. Download ADE or click "Done with this step" if you have previously downloaded ADE.
1d. If available, use the dropdown menus to select the download period and format.
1e. Click "Download Your Book".

Open the ebook in ADE on your computer.
Connect your Nook to your computer. It should appear on the "Devices" list in ADE.
Drag the ebook to your Nook in the "Devices" list.
When the transfer is complete, safely disconnect your Nook.

Follow these steps to download an ebook to your Kindle:

***When downloading ebooks to Kindles, ProQuest Ebook Central only allows for individual chapter downloads (full text downloads are not available at this time).

In order to access an ebook from ProQuest Ebook Central on your Kindle, you will first need to download the individual chapters of the ebook to your computer. Steps 1a-1f explain how to do this.

1a. Open the ebook you want to download and click "Chapter Download".
1b. Click "Check Out Ebook" (the loan length does not matter -- you will still be able to access the PDF after the loan expires).
1c. Click the "Chapter Download" button again.
1d. Use the dropdown menus to select your preferred citation style and the chapter to download, then click "Continue".
1e. Click "Open PDF".
1f. Repeat steps 1a-1e for every chapter you want to download.

Transfer the chapter PDFs to your Kindle (the process for doing this may vary depending on which type of Kindle you have -- for more assistance with this, consult Amazon's Kindle user guides).

Duke University Press
Chapters of ebooks available on the Duke University Press platform can be downloaded as DRM-free PDFs which can be accessed via mobile devices.

Printing and Copy/Pasting

Limits on printing pages and copy/pasting text from ebooks vary greatly depending on the vendor and publisher.

You do not need to sign in to your EbscoHost account to print or copy/paste.

Publisher Permissions

Print/Save X pages → X is the number of pages you can print and/or save

Copy/Paste Restricted → You cannot copy text from this ebook to paste in another location

Copy/Paste Allowed → You can copy text from this ebook to paste in another location

Concurrent User Level

Limited User Access (X Copies Available) → X is the number of people at Binghamton who can use this ebook at the same time

Limited User Access (X Uses Available) → X is the number of times this ebook can be used by people at Binghamton

Unlimited User Access → There's no limit on how many people can use this book at the same time

Your institution has access to X copies of this book → How many people at Binghamton can use this ebook at the same time

X Pages Remaining to Copy (of Y) → How many pages you can copy while reading this ebook online

X Pages Remaining to Print (of Y) → How many pages you can print while reading this ebook online

Check out for X days → How long you can keep this book downloaded for offline reading

ACLS Humanities ebook
By clicking on the "Text" button at the top of the page and then copying/pasting selected text into a word processing program, small excerpts of text may be printed.

Duke University Press
At this time, ebooks available on the Duke University Press platform cannot be printed.

IGI ebooks
Users can print HTML or PDF copies of IGI ebooks one chapter at a time.

Oxford Scholarship Online
Chapters can be printed and saved by opening up the chapter of your choice and clicking on the "View PDF" link to the left of the chapter title.
Quick printing and saving -- Saving and printing limited amounts of text may be available via the icons on the top left of the screen.
*All options and limits will vary by title.

Accessibility

This section provides information about the accessibility of various ebook platforms. If you have questions about a specific platform or encounter any issues related to the accessibility of ebook content, please contact Sarah Maximiek.

ProQuest Ebook Central

"ProQuest Ebook Central Accessibility will be fully functional soon. We are targeting Level AA of the WCAG 2.0, a very high level or accessibility for academic ebook platforms." (http://proquest.libguides.com/ebookcentral/accessibility)

Ebsco

"Are EBSCO eBooks accessible? Yes: EBSCO eBooks are delivered on the EBSCOhost and EDS platforms, which are Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Priority A compliant, and for which VPATs are available. EBSCO eBooks also follow ARIA best practices and the recommendations of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative to make content accessible to all users.

Online, for PDF format eBooks, a hidden layer to enable the delivery of ASCII text for consumption by a screenreader is available. When the ASCII text is activated, title and alt tags, as well as introductory text are properly accessible. When using a keyboard to navigate, tab order within the online eBook Viewer is maintained.

Offline (downloaded) eBooks utilize Adobe Digital Editions software (ADE). ADE leverages accessibility features on Windows and Mac OS to support blind and low-vision users, such as high-contrast modes and resizing of the book’s text. ADE 2.0 also offers robust keyboard support. Screen reader users can use many different tools to read books with Digital Editions. More information about accessibility via ADE is available here: https://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/category/digital-editions.

eBooks in EPUB format are easily accessible, both online and offline, because EPUB delivers HTML text, which is consumable by screen readers and accessibility tools."

Ebsco's eBooks and Accessibility FAQ page also provides answers to more detailed questions regarding specific adaptive technologies.

ACLS Humanities ebook

"Are your titles accessible for people with disabilities who use assistive technology?

We are happy to report that most features of the HEB collection now allow for navigation by standard automatic screen readers. Our books are designed to be accessible with a variety of hardware devices, software configurations, and assistive technologies. While the majority of HEB titles are derived from page scans, they all feature underlying OCR (optical character recognition)-derived text that can be accessed when the “text” page view option is selected." (http://www.humanitiesebook.org.proxy.binghamton.edu/help/faq.html#Anchor-12)

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

At present we are making every effort to comply with Priority 1 of World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and some features also contribute towards compliance with Priority 2 and Priority 3 guidelines. We are also striving to ensure that this site complies with the U.S Federal Government Section 508 guidelines for Web-based information. Colors used throughout the interface have been tested against the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) and Hewlett Packard's standards for luminosity contrast, color difference and brightness difference. This Web site has been tested for total (monochromatic) color vision deficiency and partial color vision (Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia). We aim to test all our products for accessibility using JAWS with Internet Explorer."

EEBO's accessibility page provides more details on specific features with implications for accessibility.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

"As an image-based (as compared to text-based) database, ECCO is not fully ADA-compliant. However, the page images may be downloaded as PDF images and then the ADA capabilities of Adobe Acrobat may be employed." (http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.binghamton.edu/ecco/component/researchtools...)

English Short Title Catalogue

"We want our website to be simple for everyone to use and we are addressing the needs of users with disabilities. For example, the website can detect if it is being accessed through a browser designed for visually impaired people. We recognise that there is more to be done and we are working towards full compliance with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines. We have consulted the Royal National Institute for the Blind and have implemented their recommendations. If you have any advice on how we can meet your particular needs, we would be very pleased to receive your comments." (http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/accessibility/index.html)

HathiTrust

"HathiTrust Digital Library is committed to making our interface as accessible as possible. We have incorporated special markup throughout the site but have focused special attention on the PageTurner (the part of the site that displays images & text of materials in the digital library). The HathiTrust PageTurner currently passes Section 508 requirements. We welcome any comments or suggestions that will help us improve it further. Please use the feedback link in the navigation menu or the footer or email feedback@issues.hathitrust.org." (https://www.hathitrust.org/accessibility)

Oxford Scholarship Online

"How accessible is Oxford Scholarship Online and will my screen reader software work with it? Oxford Scholarship Online has WCAG, AA compliance and works with most popular screen-reading software. We have worked hard to ensure that all users have an equal level of access to the scholarly content in Oxford Scholarship Online and are happy to answer any questions on this subject as well as receive comments on areas that could be improved." (http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/FAQs_oso/frequently-asked-questions-faqs#access-screenreader)

Last Updated: Jul 17, 2024 12:31 PM
URL: https://libraryguides.binghamton.edu/libraryresearch
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