Why look for e-books?
Like books, e-books offer broader and more in-depth coverage of a topic. You can learn more about the relationship between different concepts and topics, get materials recommended by scholars or faculty members in the subject, and find historical perspectives.
They are available online from anywhere for current affiliates.
Research tip: check the Table of Contents and/or index for the concepts and keywords (or even do a page search or a "control F" command) you are researching on, to get a stronger sense of what's in the book!
Getting started
The University Libraries provides access to well over 500,000 books in electronic format. They vary in features (downloading, linking) and are sometimes grouped together by subject or publisher.
To locate individual e-books, try the Libraries search using these 3 steps:
- Enter a title or subject or author
- Under "Filter my results" refine your search by limiting to "Available Online"
- Refine again by selecting "Books" under "Material Type"
Find info about freely available e-books from public libraries and other sources.
Overdrive and Libby app
Overdrive and the Libby app are new ways to read ebooks, listen to audiobooks and more. These tools are common in public libraries but they are new to the UMN Libraries. We have a growing collection with an early focus with titles from our Libraries Racial Equity Fund.