eBooks

What are they?

eBooks (or electronic books) are, as the name suggests, simply books in electronic format, typically online. Although many in Laurier Library's collection are available to any number of readers at a time, some may be restricted to a certain number and may require use of an ereader (or ebook reader, such as Adobe Digital Editions). Some types of books and subjects are better suited to accessing electronically but some are better in print. Laurier Librarians use their collection development and subject expertise to decide which format is appropriate for our patrons.

How can they be found?

Most of our ebooks can be found in the Primo catalogue, along with print titles and other materials. Search for them as you would any other book, using the "Books" limit under "Show only" on the left side. You can also limit to "Online resource" to restrict results to electronic titles. (Note: ebook content can be found in both the "Books +" and "Articles +" tabs.)

The majority of our ebook titles are discoverable on their native platform. See the collections listed below to find more electronic books or search the full text.

For help, see:

eBook Collections

Start here

ProQuest Ebook Central
Ebook platform for many full-text scholarly, trade, and university press titles acquired by Laurier Library.
Scholars Portal Books
Electronic books from various publishers and coverage various subjects.
University Press Scholarship Online
Large ebook collection on a wide variety of topics from various university presses.

Other collections

ACLS Humanities E-Book
A collection of ebooks in humanities and social sciences.
Cambridge Histories
The complete collection of this series covering history of Britain, science, art, politics and religion among others.
Colloquium Digital Library of Life Sciences
Collection of ebooks covering topics such as cell and molecular biology and bio-medicine, including the neurosciences.
Conference Board of Canada: E-LIBRARY
Research reports on public policy, economics and management.
desLibris
Canadian books and public documents.
eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
Collection of several thousand full-text electronic books on a variety of topics. (Only one user per book at a time.)
NBER Working Papers
Accesses NBER working papers in PDF format.
Past Masters
Full-text authoritative works by seminal figures in the Humanities.
PsycBOOKS
Full-text books and book chapters from the American Psychological Association.
Springer Link
Thousands of books and journals primarily in the sciences, published by Springer.

Encyclopedias

Sage Knowledge
Social sciences books by Sage Publications. Primarily Sociology, Education, and Business & Management.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Selection of reference works in the sciences and social sciences.
Oxford Reference
A collection of online dictionaries and encyclopedias on a wide variety of topics.

Open access free eBooks

Bartleby.com
Thousands of poems, novels, plays and other works in the public domain.
Digital Book Index
Thousands of full-text books in Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences. Most are freely available.
doab: directory of open access books
Academic, peer reviewed books in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Google Books
Searches the contents of a growing number of books. Link to "find this book" to see if owned at Laurier.
HathiTrust Digital Library
Growing collection of digitized texts from a consortium of American research universities.
Internet Archive: eBooks and Texts
More than two million freely available books, including novels, historical texts and academic titles.
National Academies Press
Over 4,000 free PDF ebooks in science, engineering and medicine. Requires free registration.
University of Oxford Text Archive
Humanities texts in more than 25 languages. Most are freely available.
Project Gutenberg
Thousands of free electronic books. Focuses on literary works in the public domain in the U.S.