© 2012 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
The Virginia Tech Libraries has subscribed to a number of ebook packages, giving us access to tens of thousands of books online. (Since these are paid subscriptions, be sure to use Off Campus Sign In before attempting to connect to an ebook outside the campus network.) All of these packages currently allow reading the ebook through the browser, and a few also allow downloading for offline reading or transfer to another device like a PDA or dedicated ebook reader. Most of our ebooks are formatted as PDFs, and thus require no additional software to view (we note below any exceptions to this rule). All of our ebooks have been cataloged in Addison--any usual search will turn up ebooks in the results. However, the search functionality available at each ebook platform typically allows for full-text searches, which may give more results than searches through Addison.
We currently do not subscribe to any ebook packages that specifically support e-reader devices. (The Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library does offer such ebooks.) However, many of our ebooks are available as PDFs and this format is supported by many ebook readers. Here's a chart listing the capabilities of several major e-reader devices. We do not provide support for loading ebooks onto your device.
| Provider | Format | Downloadable? | DRM? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACS Symposium Series | PDF, by chapter | Yes | No |
| APA PsycBooks | PDF, by chapter | Yes | No |
| ebrary | proprietary | No | Some limit copying and printing |
| Knovel | PDF, by chapter | Yes | No |
| Ebooks on EBSCOhost | PDF by page | Some | Yes, requires Adobe Digital Editions |
| Safari | HTML and page image | Very few | Depends on publisher |
| SpringerLink | Yes | No | |
| Synthesis Digital Library | Yes | No |
The ACS Symposium Series provides full text ebooks (each chapter is a separate HTML page or PDF) covering agriculturel, food chemistry, organic and polymer chemistry, and chemical education topics. Each book is peer-reviewed.
You can limit your search results to ebooks by using the advanced search screen and choosing ebook from the Material Type limit menu. You can also typically see a list of all ebooks from a package by keyword searching the package name.
PsycBOOKS is a full-text database of scholarly titles published by the American Psychological Association's APA Books and others. As of September 2010, the database includes over 2000 books and more than 31,000 chapters. These ebooks are full-text searchable and can be cross-searched with other APA databases, including PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES. Each chapter is separately downloadable as a PDF.
The Center for Research Libraries has digitized over 12,000 books that are available through their catalog. These records have also been added to Addison. Only bibliographic data is searchable; full-text searches are not possible with this collection.
Currently, the Virginia Tech Library's EBSCOhost ebook collection includes nearly 50,000 ebooks, of which nearly 15,000 are downloadable. (There are other ebooks on EBSCOhost to which we do not subscribe.) About 25% of our EBSCOhost collection is downloadable and useable offline for up to three days. Downloading EBSCOhost ebooks requires installing Adobe Digital Editions so that it can recognize the Digital Rights Management restrictions put in place by EBSCOhost. Read our webpage on EBSCOhost for full details on using and searching this collection. These downloadable ebooks are compatible with ebook readers such as the Barnes & Noble NOOK, Sony Reader Daily Edition, Sony Digital Readers (PRS-300, 505, 600 and 700BC), and iPad (works with third-party applications BlueFire and Txtr).
The Virginia Tech Libraries subscribe to more than 2500 ebooks from ebrary, including over 2000 medical ebooks. Some of these ebooks are limited to a single use at a time; the ebrary system will timeout an inactive user after 15 minutes. You will receive a warning when one of these books are in use and can register to receive an email when the ebook is available.
ebrary ebooks require using an ebrary reader: the QuickView Reader, the ebrary Plug-in Reader and the ebrary Unity Reader.
QuickView runs within your web browser and works with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. You can use QuickView to
QuickView is a tool for viewing documents quickly. You cannot use it to print or copy pages, highlight text, save notes, or access the features of the ebrary InfoTools -all available with the other ebrary Readers.
The ebrary Plug-in Reader runs within your web browser as a browser plug-in that you download and install. It works with the current Windows and Mac browsers. With the ebrary Reader, you can
The ebrary Unity Reader runs outside of your web browser as a separate application that you download and install. It works with most of the recent Windows and Linux browsers. If you are using Mac OS X, you must use the ebrary Plug-in Reader. With the ebrary Unity Reader, you can
The library subscribes to about 1700 of the 7200 available ebooks from CRCnetBASE. The entire collection if full-text searchable (use ILLiad to request print copies of books that are not part of our subscription). Each chapter of these ebooks is presented as a separate, downloadable PDF.
The HathiTrust Digital Library contains over seven million volumes and over one billion pages of scanned books and other materials. About 20 percent of all content is in the public domain (and accessible to you). You can also browse several public collections. Content is available in several image formats, text, and PDF.
Our collection of Knovel ebooks contains over 1700 titles on engineering and the sciences. Most present each chapter as a downloadable PDF.
The National Academies Press provides over 4000 free PDF ebooks (most of their published titles). Free registration is required before you can download the PDFs. You can download a single PDF for the entire book, or one for each chapter. We link from the Addison screen for our print copies to the online version on the NAP site. You can browse subject categories or search across the collection.
The Library subscribes to about 8400 of the books in the Safari Tech Books Online collection. These books are primarily in the areas of Computer Science and Information Technology, but also include a number of Business titles. Safari now offers all subscribers an opportunity to view select books in Print Fidelity mode. This means that the book is presented in the exact page format found in the hard copy version. Some, not all, Print Fidelity books will have PDFs associated with them. It is the publisher's decision to allow download capability. Some PDFs have been optimized for use on e-reader devices
A collection of over 12,000 ebooks and book chapters in 13 subjects: Architecture and Design; Behavioral Science; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Business and Economics; Chemistry and Materials Science; Computer Science; Earth and Environmental Science; Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Law; Mathematics and Statistics; Medicine; Physics and Astronomy; and Professional and Applied Computing. (We have access to most English-language ebooks from this site; ebooks will be marked with a green box to denote access rights.) Most documents are delivered as PDFs that can be downloaded and saved.
A collection of almost 200 ebooks in science and technology. Complete list of books. The basic component is a 50-100 page ebook called a Lecture that synthesizes important research or development topics, authored by a prominent contributor to the field that provide more synthesis, analysis, and depth than typical journal articles. Each is provided as a downloadable PDF.
Google has scanned books from many research libraries as well as receiving digital copies from various publishers. This "collection" of ebooks is full text searchable; however not all ebooks are delivered in full text. Some are restricted so that you can only view the page where your search term appears and a few surrounding pages. Recently Google made browsing these collection easier; genres and subjects of ebooks (along with scanned magazines and journals) are linked on the Google Books homepage.
Books in the public domain (those with expired copyrights) can be downloaded in PDF or EPUB formats for viewing in your browser or many ebook readers.
We link to Google Books from Addison when we can match Google Books data. The link that appears in the External Links box will indicate whether a full preview or limited preview of the book is available.
Sun: open 9:00am
Mon-Thu: open 24 hours*
Fri: close 8:00pm
Sat: 9:00am - 8:00pm
*During 24 hour operation, a valid Hokie Passport is required to access or remain in the library between 12 midnight and 7:30am.
Sun: 2:00pm - 11:00pm
Mon-Thu: 8:00am - 11:00pm
Fri: 8:00am - 6:00pm
Sat: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Sun: Closed
Mon-Thu: 11:00am - 10:00pm
Fri: 11:00am - 7:00pm
Sat: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sun: 11:00am - 11:00pm
Mon-Thu: 7:30am - 11:00pm
Fri: 7:30am - 6:00pm
Sat: 9:00am - 6:00pm
© 2012 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University