An electronic book, or E Book, is an electronic copy or version of a text that may or may not exist in hard copy. You will either encounter them incidentally in your search of the catalog or set out to intentionally search for them. First, let us go over how to access them when you encounter them in a routine book search, then we will see how to go about seeing out E Books specifically.
Catalog Access
Step 1: Click The Link to the Record
So, you have performed Steps 1-3 of locating a book and are working on the fourth step. However, where the Call Number is supposed to be, the record states that the title is an E Book and to "click the above link."
If you want to view the E Book, click on the text link to the item record. It is the title of the item, written in blue text.
Step 2: Getting to the E Book Record
Once you have clicked on the link to the item record, you will be taken to a screen that looks like this:
Here you can find out information about the item such as the titles of the chapters it contains. You can also use the underlined text links to search the catalog for other books by the same author or on the same subject(s). Simply click the appropriate link. At this time, however, we are interested in actually viewing the material. You will notice that under the Call Number heading, the record states to "click the above link." The "above link" refers to the blue text link located after the Electronic Resource subheading. Click this link.
If you are accessing the collection from off campus, you will be prompted for a username and password. The username is your student ID number and the password is the universal PIN number given out in information literacy instruction sessions. Call or email the library if you do not know the PIN.
Step 3: Navigating the E Book Record
When clicking on the link to the E book record, you will be directed to the EBSCO interface, in a new browser tab. This is what it will look like:
Here you can see the bibliographic information of the item, as well as various metadata about it such as the subjects and categories it falls under. You can also click the box beside the Table of Contents link (located on the left sidebar) to see a list of the chapters/sections of the book and jump directly to any of those.
To simply view the book from the beginning, click the "eBook Full Text" link under the "Detailed Record" heading. After doing so, you will be directed to the book interface:
You will see a scanned image of the cover of the book in the middle of your screen. To the left, you have a sidebar containing links to various sections in the book. The maroon bar along the bottom of the screen has two arrows that allow you navigate the book page-by-page. You can also type in a specific page number into the text box in the middle of the bar and click the adjacent gray "Go" button to jump directly to that page.The sidebar on the right contains some advanced options, such as printing parts of the E Book, emailing yourself a permanent link to the record, and atainign citation information for the book in a variety of writing styles.
Now, we will examine how to intentionally search for just E Books instead of just happening upon them during a catalog search.
Searching the E Book Collection
Step 1:The E Books Collection
From the Library Homepage, click on the "Electronic Books" text link under the "Find" subheading.
You will be directed to a list of links to digital collections of electronic books. You will want to click on the "EBSCO E-Book Collection" link.
This link will take you to the EBSCO interface that allows access to the E Book collection that the library subscribes to. If you are accessing the collection from off campus, you will be prompted for a username and password. The username is your student ID number and the password is the universal PIN number given out in information literacy instruction sessions. Call or email the library if you do not know the PIN.
The other links in this list are to free resources. While these can be quite useful, here we are concerned with J.L. Bedsole Library resources.
Step 2: Performing a Search
You will be directed to the EBSCO search interface, automatically set up to search the EBSCO E Book Collection.
Check the Full Text box located on the left side of the page, two-thirds from the top, under the "Limit your results" subheading. By doing this, you ensure that your retrievals are, in fact, full books rather than partial ones or just citations. Type in your search term(s) into bar near the top of the page and click the adjacent, maroon "Search" button.
Step 3: Chose An E Book
EBSCO will direct you to its retrieval screen that looks like this:
From here, you can look through the search results or use the sidebar to "drill down" or further filter them. You can adjust the dates of the works you want to search for, filter by subject or category. Librarians refer to this process as "faceting searching." Once you locate an E Book you'd like to browse, you can click on its title to go to the E Book record page described in Step 3 above, or you can go directly to the Full Text or Table of Contents by clicking on the appropriate text links displayed under the metadata for each record. Once you are in the full text, refer to Step 3 above for more details on how to navigate the E Book interface.
Table of Contents
Catalog Access
Step 1: Click The Link to the Record
So, you have performed Steps 1-3 of locating a book and are working on the fourth step. However, where the Call Number is supposed to be, the record states that the title is an E Book and to "click the above link."
If you want to view the E Book, click on the text link to the item record. It is the title of the item, written in blue text.
Step 2: Getting to the E Book Record
Once you have clicked on the link to the item record, you will be taken to a screen that looks like this:
Here you can find out information about the item such as the titles of the chapters it contains. You can also use the underlined text links to search the catalog for other books by the same author or on the same subject(s). Simply click the appropriate link. At this time, however, we are interested in actually viewing the material. You will notice that under the Call Number heading, the record states to "click the above link." The "above link" refers to the blue text link located after the Electronic Resource subheading. Click this link.
If you are accessing the collection from off campus, you will be prompted for a username and password. The username is your student ID number and the password is the universal PIN number given out in information literacy instruction sessions. Call or email the library if you do not know the PIN.
Step 3: Navigating the E Book Record
When clicking on the link to the E book record, you will be directed to the EBSCO interface, in a new browser tab. This is what it will look like:
Here you can see the bibliographic information of the item, as well as various metadata about it such as the subjects and categories it falls under. You can also click the box beside the Table of Contents link (located on the left sidebar) to see a list of the chapters/sections of the book and jump directly to any of those.
To simply view the book from the beginning, click the "eBook Full Text" link under the "Detailed Record" heading. After doing so, you will be directed to the book interface:
You will see a scanned image of the cover of the book in the middle of your screen. To the left, you have a sidebar containing links to various sections in the book. The maroon bar along the bottom of the screen has two arrows that allow you navigate the book page-by-page. You can also type in a specific page number into the text box in the middle of the bar and click the adjacent gray "Go" button to jump directly to that page.The sidebar on the right contains some advanced options, such as printing parts of the E Book, emailing yourself a permanent link to the record, and atainign citation information for the book in a variety of writing styles.
Now, we will examine how to intentionally search for just E Books instead of just happening upon them during a catalog search.
Searching the E Book Collection
Step 1:The E Books Collection
From the Library Homepage, click on the "Electronic Books" text link under the "Find" subheading.
You will be directed to a list of links to digital collections of electronic books. You will want to click on the "EBSCO E-Book Collection" link.
This link will take you to the EBSCO interface that allows access to the E Book collection that the library subscribes to. If you are accessing the collection from off campus, you will be prompted for a username and password. The username is your student ID number and the password is the universal PIN number given out in information literacy instruction sessions. Call or email the library if you do not know the PIN.
The other links in this list are to free resources. While these can be quite useful, here we are concerned with J.L. Bedsole Library resources.
Step 2: Performing a Search
You will be directed to the EBSCO search interface, automatically set up to search the EBSCO E Book Collection.
Check the Full Text box located on the left side of the page, two-thirds from the top, under the "Limit your results" subheading. By doing this, you ensure that your retrievals are, in fact, full books rather than partial ones or just citations. Type in your search term(s) into bar near the top of the page and click the adjacent, maroon "Search" button.
Step 3: Chose An E Book
EBSCO will direct you to its retrieval screen that looks like this:
From here, you can look through the search results or use the sidebar to "drill down" or further filter them. You can adjust the dates of the works you want to search for, filter by subject or category. Librarians refer to this process as "faceting searching." Once you locate an E Book you'd like to browse, you can click on its title to go to the E Book record page described in Step 3 above, or you can go directly to the Full Text or Table of Contents by clicking on the appropriate text links displayed under the metadata for each record. Once you are in the full text, refer to Step 3 above for more details on how to navigate the E Book interface.
251.442.2246 | umlibrary@umobile.edu | @umobilelib(C) 2012 The University of Mobile and the J.L. Bedsole Library
Originally created by Charles W. Hodgin III