Tag Archives: ebooks

EBSCO E-books – how-to

A few months ago, the library subscribed to EBSCO e-books. You can search for them here, or in the library catalog, or if you do a Summon search and one of these more than 157,000 books has content connected to your search term, Summon will lead you to the book.

Then what?

Below is a screenshot of what you’ll see, showing red boxes around some key things.

  • Scroll down to read a brief description of the book, see how many users can view the book at a time (most have “unlimited user access”), and see other information about the book.
  • To ‘save’ it to read later in the same browsing session, click “Add to Folder” (Note that if you close the tab or window, the folder will empty.)
  • To read the book page by page online on the EBSCO platform, choose the “PDF full text” icon in the left menu.
  • To download it to read offline, or to retain it in a folder after you close your browsing session, you need to create your own personal account on EBSCOhost. To do that, click the “Sign In” link on the top bar, and create your account. (It is best practice to not use the same username or password that you use for Middlebury logins.) Once you have created an account and logged in, you can download an EBSCO e-book for up to seven days.
  • There are EBSCO e-book apps for Android in the Google Play Store and for iPhone in iTunes. You need to create a personal EBSCOhost account as described above (on a laptop or desktop) to use for the app.

Has an ebook disappeared on you?

Looking for an ebook you used recently but that seems to have vanished? Let us know right away; we can probably get it back. Our major ebook program is undergoing some changes due to soaring costs and increasing publisher restrictions on usage. A large number of titles will disappear from our catalog this week. The process is designed to leave available anything that’s been used recently, but because of behind-the-scenes technical work, there’s a lag between the vendor’s most recent usage reports and the actual catalog-record deletion. As a result, you may have used a title in the last two weeks and now can’t find it again. Just ask us to recover it, and if our supplier still has it available, we will!

We also added a new collection recently, with more than 140,000 ebooks from EBSCO. Check it out!

Looking for an Ebook You Once Saw Here?

Has an ebook you’ve previously used disappeared from our catalog? Never fear! We’ve had to make some cutbacks at the end of the fiscal year (lots and lots of requests for new material this year), but if you need to regain access to something that no longer appears, we may be able to get you back in. Just email us the title at researchdesk@middlebury.edu, and if it’s still available to us, we’ll get you back up and running with it.

Has an ebook gone missing?

Noticed that an ebook you’ve previously seen no longer appears available? There are several possible reasons, but the most likely one right now is that it was removed from our collection because of its cost. The library has many sources for ebooks, and the largest one is a company called Ebook Library (EBL). We have some 200,000 EBL records in our catalog, of which we own only .6%. The rest are there for access as needed, and we don’t pay for them until they’re actually used. This is a recently developed program called Demand-Driven Acquisitions (DDA). A vastly oversimplified description is that for the first four uses, the library pays a percentage of the full purchase price, and the fifth use triggers an automatic purchase. DDA lets us offer a tremendous range of ebooks at a small fraction of the full purchase price. Over the last four years, we’ve paid less than $500,000 for access to more than $8 million worth of books.

However, in the last two years, many publishers have decided they weren’t making enough money, so they dramatically hiked their fees for those first four uses, which has sent our library’s costs skyrocketing. We’ve shifted some funds from print purchasing to cover the additional ebook costs, but the only way to moderate expenditures for the longer term is to remove the most expensive titles, along with titles from the most expensive publishers.

What to do? If you’re not finding something you’d previously seen, or if you come across a catalog link that doesn’t work (removing the catalog records tends to lag behind the actual ebook access), email us right away, and we might be able to get it back. If we can’t, we’ll work on finding another way to lay hands on the material for you.

The slow rise of ebooks (by the numbers)

The Library took note in May 2011 when Amazon.com announced that its customers were purchasing “more Kindle books than all print books – hardcover and paperback – combined.” Though we’re certainly not yet debating the idea of a bookless library at Middlebury, some number crunching over a 14 month time period seems to show that Middlebury faculty, students, and librarians are beginning to favor ebooks over print too:

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A 14 Month Snapshot of Library Requests (Sept. 1, 2011-Nov. 1, 2012)

1,339 faculty, students, & librarians requested books

Overall 35% preferred a print book

Overall 65% preferred an ebook

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Of the 211 students requests 45% preferred a print book and 55% preferred ebooks

Of the 432 librarian requests 33% preferred a print book and 67% preferred ebooks 

Out of 696 faculty requests 34% preferred a print book and 66% preferred ebooks

Ebooks for Kindle Fire, Android, iOS

New versions of OverDrive app for Android and iOS (iPhone/ iPad/ iPod touch).

What’s Overdrive? It’s Middlebury’s ebook and audiobook collection of prize-winning fiction, non-fiction, and popular reading…(go/Overdrive).
If you already have the app installed, you’ll see an “update” prompt the next time you open it. Otherwise, download the updated apps here:

New Library acquisitions for the Sciences

Annual Reviews
Access to 37 Annual Reviews volumes within the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences. From its inception in 1932 to the current year.

Birds of North America Online
From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BNA Online provides life histories for each of the 716+ species of birds breeding in the USA (including Hawaii) and Canada along with image and video galleries showing plumages, behaviors, habitat, nests and eggs, and recordings of songs and calls.

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (2006 – current)
An interdisciplinary journal providing a definitive source of research methods in cell, developmental and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, computational biology, immunology, neuroscience and imaging.

Fertility and Sterility (1997 – current)
Articles in clinical and laboratory research relevant to reproductive endocrinology, urology, andrology, physiology, immunology, genetics, contraception, and menopause.

JSTOR Life Sciences Collection (go/jstor)
Four hundred years (1665-2007) of published journals of science history and research in the sciences including aquatic science, botany, developmental & cell biology, ecology, paleontology, zoology, medicine, nursing, epidemiology, and public health.

SpringerLink (go/springer)
Over 2,000 journals and 53,000 ebooks in the fields of science, technology, and medicine.

 

Visit our New & Trial Resources page to find these and other newly added items. 

Put a book in your ear (or your iPod) and on your Kindle (or Nook)

Middlebury students, faculty, and staff can “check-out” from the Library eBooks for Kindles (or the Kindle app), Nooks, or other eReaders and audiobooks for your iPod (or any other mp3 player).

Visit our eBook & AudioBook Home, or visit go/bookstogo (go.middlebury.edu/bookstogo).

(Very soon, all of these books with be in our library catalog too.)

You can also download a special app for your Mobile device (Android, Blackberry, iPhone/iPad, etc.) and check-out eBooks and audiobooks directly. Download the right mobile app here. From the app, search for “Middlebury College” when you’re asked to Add a Library.

These eBook and audiobooks are available with support from an ACE/Alfred E. Sloan Faculty Career Flexibility Award to promote Work/Life Balance at the College. So download a book, and then relax, or take a walk, go for a run, cook a meal, or take a very long drive, all with a book playing in the background.