Electronic Books Guide
Overview
We are purchasing more and more books in electronic format. Some of the major collections are listed below. Use the Library catalog to search across all these collections to find specific e-books or e-books on a topic. Use the advanced search and add "electronic resource" in one of the search boxes.
There are also some good free online book sites. Many books and texts that are out of copyright are available on the Web. Google Books includes just a portion of those. Many Google Books are still in copyright and these titles are not freely available in full text. Instead you would have to find a copy in our library or elsewhere.
Electronic Books
A collection of over 40,000 books from over 150 publishers covering all academic disciplines. Users must download and install the Ebrary software to view the books.
NetLibrary (Now EBSCOHost eBook Collection)
A collection of over 25,000 electronic books that are searchable and readable online. To create a personal list of books, make notes or in other ways customize EBSCOHost eBooks for your own use, create a Free Account. Please note that not all titles are accessible on Macs. Some work only with Internet Explorer, available in Waldo Library at select Scholar Workstations. Mac users running OSX 10.4 or higher and the Firefox browser need to install a .pdf plug-in available here.
A collection of over 2,000 books in the humanities from the early 20th century up to the present selected by the American Council of Learned Societies.
More than 6,000 full text books in business, IT and engineering. BroncoNet ID required for login. This subscription is limited to five simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Full text online from over 400 encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books. Search a topic, build a concept map or browse information sources organized by subject. Find text, images, sound files, sortable data tables and more.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Contains digital 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. The collection is indexed at the British Library website. The index (in print) and images (on microfilm) are also available in Waldo Library.
Database of directories with the ability to sort, export, and print results. Directories include the Brands and Their Companies, Business Rankings Annual, Directories in Print, Directory of Libraries and Special Information Centers, Encyclopedia of Associations, Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, Government Research Directory, Market Share Reporter, Publishers Directory, Research Centers Directory, and Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Online reference books in business, education, law, medicine, religion and social science.
More than 200 dictionaries, encyclopedias, language reference and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. In addition to text, some sources include maps, illustrations, and Web links. Users can search one resource, a group of selected resources, or all of them at once. Regularly updated. This subscription is limited to five simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
A collection of over 4,000 online technical books including leading-edge computer technologies. This subscription is limited to two simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Access to a collection of over 40,000 electronic books from 2005 to date that are searchable and readable online. Note: The WMU Library access is limited to English language books published from 2005 to date. These are indicated with a green box.
This digital library contains 100 engineering and computer science books in PDF format. Subjects covered include artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, communication networks, energy, entrepreneurship, robotics, and solid state materials. The individual lectures or books can be saved, printed or emailed.
Literature Texts Online
Over 800 film scripts, as well as detailed information about the scenes, characters, and people related to the scripts. Searches can be restricted quite precisely--to criminal characters or interior urban settings in the 1950s, for example. You can also sometimes compare different versions of a film script.
Full text of 252 plays by 42 playwrights, with information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also included: selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
Full text of more than 1,300 plays from the mid-1800s to the present written by 200 African or African-American playwrights. Each play is indexed by keyword and by numerous subjects. Enhanced by reference materials, ancillary information and images.
Includes more than 6,400 stories and folktales by African, African American, and Caribbean authors. (When complete the collection will contain approximately 8000 works.) Most of the stories are in English, but some in French, Portuguese, and Gullah language are also included. Search by keyword, title, author, language and date.
Chadwyck-Healy Literature Collections
Full text of English and American poetry, drama, and fiction from different time periods. The Literature Online database organized by collections. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker
An electronic edition of the Bibliothek deutscher Klassiker which contains the highpoints of German literature, as well as editions of works by writers and philosophers such as Herder, Kleist, Kant, and Fichte. Various historical, philosophical theological, political and art history texts are included among the digitized works. The overall range is 800 to 1914.
When complete, this resource will contain approximately 100,000 pages of prose, poetry and drama by women writers from Mexico, Central, and South America from the colonial period to the present. Currently there are about 4200 pages of prose and poetry available. Drama will be added next.
Contains more than 100,00 pages of poetry, fiction and drama by Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Latin writers working in the United States. Includes almost 400 plays.
A full-text database of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose from the year 600 to modern times, and literary criticism from over 300 journals and various reference resources. Includes biographies, bibliographies, and links to websites. The "My Archive" feature allows you to save save articles. This database also has a citation export feature into Refworks, and Endnotes. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.
Contains over 125,000 full text poems, and some short stories, essays, and plays. Biographies of the authors are included and over 800,000 more poems are cited.
Over 1,500 plays by 330 playwrights, with detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. 30% of the plays have not been published before. Also included: selected playbills, production photographs, and other ephemera related to the plays.