e-book Basics
Good news! Basic use of e-books is easy. Do you have a browser on your device? Then you can search for, find, and read (open and view) online all of Collins Library e-books.
All of our e-book monographs can be found and accessed through Puget Sound WorldCat. Plus, we have a rotating selection of featured e-books each month that you can browse.
If you're looking for basic overviews or online reference materials, you also may find it helpful to browse through Collins Library Subject Guides and Course Guides developed by Collins Library liaison librarians to identify e-books and electronic reference sources.
Finding e-books in Puget Sound WorldCat
The screenshots below will lead you through a simple e-book search in Puget Sound WorldCat.
Step 1. Do your search.
Step 2. Limit your search to e-books.
Step 3. Click the e-book title. This starts the process of opening the e-book. There are a series of clicks to go through prior to actually seeing the ebook. When you click on the book title, you will be taken to the WorldCat catalog record for that item.
Step 4. Click the appropriate link in the WorldCat record. The WorldCat record will look different depending on whether it is an EBL e-book or an Ebsco e-book. Note: Always ignore the link that says Check for access to full-text—it was designed to find journal articles, not books!
- EBL e-books: click on the link called View eBook
- Ebsco e-books: click the very long link called Bibliographic record display An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click for information
Searching e-book collections directly
In addition to searching the Puget Sound WorldCat catalog you can search the e-book collections directly through the vendor native interface. One major difference when searching within the vendor interface instead of searching the Puget Sound WorldCat catalog is that searches are done on the full-text of all the e-books rather than just indexed fields such as titles, authors, subject headings, and tables of contents (when available). It may seem that searching full-text is better but sometimes it may not be. When every instance of your search term is found in every book you may actually retrieve less relevant results than if only titles or subject headings are searched because your search word may be used in passing and not really be what the book is about. When searching e-books directly via vendor interfaces, consider using search filters to narrow your results.