by Sandra Yaegle, Head of Public Services
Each year on the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS), we receive comments from students who like ebooks (and would like us to buy more) and from others who find them difficult to use and wish we would just stick with printed copies. Here are two comments from the 2014 CSS:
- “It will help students tremendously with papers, if the library has more ebooks available.”
- “Reading ebooks is difficult and not user friendly. Having a real book is much nicer, and I have used a purchased book rather than use the ebook.”
-
-
The Library currently has over 300,000 ebooks in the collection, and it is becoming easier to find and read them. The first thing you may be asking is how to locate them. The best way to search for ebooks is to use either the Library Catalog or One Search. See our Locating e-Books page for tips on using the Catalog or One Search to find e-books.
All of our e-book collections provide the same full-text access as the printed version. Most of our ebooks also allow you the option of reading online or downloading it to your computer or mobile device. Our Downloading eBooks page has video tutorials that will show you how to do this.
Although nothing quite replaces the feel and smell of paper and ink, ebooks have some nifty features of their own: Some of our ebooks allow you to take notes, look up words in a dictionary, or search for key words or topics inside the book.
For a complete list of ebook collections in the Library, see our ebook Collections page. For your convenience, this page also lists free ebook and audiobook sites on the Web
“There is absolutely no difference between a hardcover book or an audiobook or a multimedia book application. There is no difference between a high quality paper or e-ink screen or a high-resolution Retina display. The biggest pleasure comes from what we read, not from on what we read.”*
Happy reading.
_______________________________
*Piotr Kowalczyk, “50 Most Inspiring Quotes about Books and Reading” Ebook Friendly, 2015, http:ebookfriendly.combest-quotes-books-reading.