Find E-books
What is an e-book?
An e-book is simply an electronic version of a book, designed to be read on a computer screen or a portable device such as a PDA. In most cases, e-books can be printed out in part or in their entirety, but they are primarily intended for on-screen viewing.
Many e-books are designed to resemble the printed version of a book; you will see a scanned image of each page on your screen. By clicking, you may "turn the page" forward or backward, or jump to a particular page number. Many e-books have a clickable table of contents that allows you to move to a particular chapter.
Books that are out of copyright and in the public domain are often freely available in digital form on the internet. These are often found as plain text files that you can open, read, or print from any computer. Other freely available books may be in the form of PDF files that you can download and view with the free Adobe Reader software.
Some e-book providers require you to install a small reader program on your computer. Your computer may prompt you to approve the one-time installation of this software. The e-book readers available for download through the library website are virus-free and safe to use on your personal computer.
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How can I find e-books?
There are several ways to locate e-books. You may browse the various e-book collections at LMU, or look for electronic books that are freely available on the internet.
You may find it most efficient to use LINUS, the LMU library catalog. When you search in LINUS, your results will include books from our print collection as well as e-books made available to you by LMU. All e-books listed in LINUS include a link that you can click on to access the e-book.
To search LINUS for e-books only, use the LINUS advanced search form. Enter your search term(s), and select E-Book in the drop-down menu under "Material Type."
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How do I cite an e-book?
Each of the major citation style manuals (Chicago, APA, MLA) includes guidelines for citing electronic resources. See the citation guidelines available on our website, or ask a librarian for assistance.
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E-book collections at LMU
[Note: for online versions of reference books such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, please
visit our E-Reference page.]
CRCnetBASE: Texts, reference titles, and handbooks on science and engineering topics. Collections include: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Nutrition, Telecommunications. Also includes online access to the Handbook of Chemistry & Physics.
Early American Imprints (Series I: Evans): Full text collection of Early American (1639-1800) books, pamphlets, and other texts in history, literature, philosophy, religion, and more. The collection encompasses more than 37,000 full text works.
Early American Imprints (Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker): Full text collection of Early American (1801-1819) books, pamphlets, and other texts in history, literature, philosophy, religion, government materials, and more. Upon completion it will encompass more than 36,000 full text works.
Early English Books Online: Searchable full text of about 100,000 books, periodicals and pamphlets. Coverage ranges from the first book published in English through the English Civil War, the Interregnum and the Restoration. Includes the work of such authors as Spenser, Bacon, More, Erasmus, and Shakespeare. Contains nearly all of the titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue and its revised edition, Wing's Short-Title Catalogue, and the Thomason Tracts.
ebrary: Full text of over 30,000 books in many disciplines from leading academic and professional publishers. Most titles are from the past five years. Requires the free ebrary Reader to view books. View the Quick Start Guide for an introduction to using ebrary. (Note: ebrary performs system maintenance on the first Tuesday of each month from 8:00 - 10:00 pm, pacific time. The service may be unavailable during those time periods.)
Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO): Monumental collection of virtually every significant English or foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom from 1701-1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. Over 150,000 titles across disciplines.
Literature Online (LION): Texts of over 300,000 English and American poems, plays, and works of fiction; literary encyclopedias, bibliographies and other reference works; links to over 2500 literary web sites.
NetLibrary: Full text of over 3,800 books in many disciplines, from leading academic and professional publishers.
Oxford Scholarship Online: Searchable full text of Oxford University Press books on the topics of Economics and Finance, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion.
Past Masters: Full text humanities database of the works of major philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, and Kierkegaard, using widely respected editions and translations.
Patrologia Latina Database: Electronic version of the first edition of Migne's Patrologia Latina comprising the works of the Church Fathers from 200 to 1216 AD.
The Shakespeare Collection (Featuring the Arden Shakespeare Complete Works): An extensive collection of authoritative materials, including literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Includes Arden Shakespeare editions of the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, other works published during Shakespeare's time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and other reference material.
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Free e-books
The EServer: Freely accessible e-books on such diverse topics as art, architecture, race, Internet studies, sexuality, drama, design, multimedia, and current social issues. The EServer also publishes hypertext and streaming audio and video recordings. Although these works are accessible at no cost, they remain under various forms of copyright.
Google Books: Search, browse, and preview millions of books from publishers worldwide. The full content of many out-of-copyright books is available for online reading.
Project Gutenberg: Collection of over 20,000 e-books. Most of the works on this site are out of copyright and therefore free to download and use.
Project Gutenberg Consortia Center: Repository for a variety of freely downloadable e-book collections from around the world, with over 75,000 e-books currently available.
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