Current Topics with Tutorials: E-books

Three ways to find electronic books at GSU:

• The GIL-Find catalog helps you locate many e-books on your topic in one search. After completing your search by topic, title, author, etc., select  Full Access Online under "Availability" and books under "Format" to narrow to ebooks.
• The Discover Tool : After completing your search, select  ebooks under "Format."
• Searching individual e-book databases give you the most complete results and allows you to search within the book.

Two of our most popular ebook databases

This interactive tutorial will help you learn to find and use ebooks.

Do I need to download the e-book?

• You don't have to download to read the ebook. Many of our ebooks are available to read on your computer or device in PDF or EPub format without downloading as long as you maintain an internet connection. When you use ebooks this way, when you close them, they are not saved on your device.
• But you can download if you need to. Downloading ebooks places a file on your device that you can access for a limited period of time. This way you can read the ebook without maintaining an internet connection.  The file will expire after your loan period (or "check out" period) is over. When you use ebooks this way, you can make notes and bookmarks. If there are a limited number of concurrent users, the entire period of your loan period will count as one user until you "return" the book or the loan expires.

For downloading instructions, see our E-book guide: 

Can I Print/Save/Email or Copy/Paste pages from the Ebook?

Look for information on each book that tells you:

• The number of pages you my save, print, or email. This varies by book, ranging from 0-100 pages. (This is set by the publishers.)
• If portions of the book may be copy-and-pasted.
• The number of simultaneous users -- that is, the number of people at GSU who can use the book at the same time. (This ranges from 1 to unlimited.)

How do I navigate an ebook?

The appearance and functions of the ebook reader interface vary from database to database, but most include similar functions.  As shown in the image, these functions include:

• Navigating by chapter
• Navigating by page
• Searching within the text
• Options to adjust the view (only E-pub lets you resize the text within the page)
• Tools to save, print, cite, and email portions of the book to yourself

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Think a book is too long? Often a chapter or page is all you need.

Look in the Table of Contents or Index to see if any parts of the book look interesting. In e-books, you can even search the contents!

You can request books from other libraries in the GIL Find catalog and pick them up at the campus of your choice.

The catalog search won't help you identify articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. Use databases to find articles.