E-Books in the Library Catalog
START HERE. SEARCH FOR E-BOOKS IN OUR LIBRARY CATALOG.
Many of our e-books (but not all) have linked records in CBBcat, our library catalog.
Search by title, author or keyword, but be sure and change the 2nd drop-down menu to: e-books.
(CBBcat can also be accessed from the Colby Libraries home page by moving the orange bar to Books & More OR by clicking on the books icon in the lower right of the home page.)
Sample CBBcat E-book Search
TOPIC: Peru mining
SEARCH CBBcat
Change 2nd-drop down menu to E-books
CBBcat RESULTS LIST
OPEN RECORD and click COLBY ACCESS
CLICK E-BOOK COLLECTION LINK
YOUR E-BOOK!
Questions? Need Help!
Use our Ask Us service for access problems or general questions.
Or email ask@colby.libanswers.com
For help in doing research (exploring a topic, brainstorming search terms, identifying resources, finding and evaluating sources, citing sources, etc.), please don't hesitate to reach out to a research librarian.
Librarians meet with students, faculty and staff via emails, Google Hangouts Chat, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.
We would love to hear from you!
E-Book Collections
OR BROWSE OUR E-BOOK COLLECTIONS
In the middle drop-down, choose E-book Collections. Browse to find collections in your subject area.
MAJOR INTERDISCIPLINARY E-BOOK COLLECTIONS
- Ebook Central (formerly Ebrary) This link opens in a new windowAcademic ebooks from a variety of publishers, in many subject areas including anthropology, history, law, psychology, global studies, philosophy, religion, computer science, literature, film, and the fine arts.
- Cambridge Core This link opens in a new windowCambridge Core is a new platform for Cambridge University Press's academic content. Containing book and journal content, it is a replacement for Cambridge Journals Online and Cambridge Books Online. Contains over 1 million journal articles and 30,000+ books.
- e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection This link opens in a new windowAccess to selected ebooks from Duke University Press, which publishes scholarly works in the humanities and social sciences.
- SpringerLink eBooks This link opens in a new windowEspecially strong in the sciences. Subjects include architecture, astronomy, behavioral science, life sciences, economics, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, engineering, social science, law, mathematics, medicine, physics. Books published from 2005 to the present.
Look for Use Details in E-Book Records
- E-books make a text easy to access, download, highlight, and cite.
- E-books can be accessed anywhere with a Colby login.
- But rules of access and usage can vary by publisher! Look for details within each book's item record.
The Ebrary title Global Justice: The Basics
Check out this guide's second tab, Using E-Books, for more information.
Video Tutorials: Finding E-books
To play videos, FIRST click on arrow in upper right corner, then start the recording.
Finding e-books in CBBcat
Finding e-books via e-book collections listed on Colby's A-Z database page.
E-books on the Web
E-books can sometimes be found on the web. Some access is only temporary during this crisis.
- DPLA: Digital Public LIbrary of America DPLA is a discovery tool, or union catalog, for public domain and openly licensed content held by the nation's archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) This link opens in a new window "The primary aim of DOAB is to increase discoverability of Open Access books. The directory is open to all publishers who publish academic, peer reviewed books in Open Access and meet academic standards."
- HathiTrust This link opens in a new window A digital library that includes older books in the public domain. Although open on the web, member institutions, like Colby, have greater downloading privileges. Use the yellow "Log in" button to select Colby College.
HATHI TRUST UPDATE: ENHANCED ACCESS
Hathi Trust provides access to a wealth of public domain books, but Colby has now been approved for wider access in a very limited ETA (emergency temporary access) program. This allows staff, faculty, and students to access/check out one copy of Colby print monographs that have been digitized by Hathi.
- Identify a Colby print book in CBBcat that you hope to be able to access digitally.
- Go to HathiTrust. https://www.hathitrust.org/
- LOG IN (click the button at the top right and choose Colby College.)
- You may be asked to authenticate with your Colby ID and password via Okta.
- Click on Advanced Full-Text Search and search by title.
If the book has by digitized by Hathi, you will see a “Temporary Access” option. This is available only to Colby students, faculty and staff.
“Temporary Access” books can be read only online. You can download one page at a time. You can’t download the whole book. You can check out a book for 1 hour. Your access will renew automatically at the end of that hour, unless another user requests the book.
Example: https://cbbcat.net/record=b1214333~S7
Search for this title in HathiTrust Advanced Full-Text Search.