Using e-booksIntroduction to using e-

books for research

James BissetAcademic Liaison Librarian (Research Support)

Session outline- Advantages and

disadvantages- Finding e-books

- library subscriptions - open access on the web

- Referencing e-books (principles of...)

Advantages of using e-booksPrint surrogate

with added benefits:

• Accessibility - 24/7 access for multiple users• Substitute for antiquarian texts• Do not deteriorate• Space-saving

Advantages of using e-booksAdded value with

each e-book:

• Full-text searching• Reformatting, cut & paste• Highlight text and add notes• Group working• Export options

Disadvantages of using e-books

• Finding them• Learning functionality on

different platforms• Normally requires online access • Tiring to read on screen• Publication dates / editions• Quality of image• Copyright

Different providers & formats

• Some allow full-text searching; others index only individual chapters

• Some display book within the interface; others link to a separate pdf

• Some scanned items (with OCR searchable text); others free text

Finding e-books• Durham University

Library catalogue

–Individual titles–Collections•Monographs•Reference•Historic

Hands-on- Use the library catalogue to find an

e-book

- Browse the collections from either : http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/online/ebooks/ orhttp://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/online/reference/

• Free books on the web–Previews (Google Books)–Open access• OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in

European Networks)• Project Gutenberg

–Out of copyright

Finding e-books

Hands-on- Explore some of the e-book

collections at:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/online/ebooks/

Citing and referencing

http://library.dur.ac.uk/record=b2643050~S1

In text citationsFrom an e-book collection:• Smith and Jones (1992: 34)• “important quotation” (Fowler, 2007: 12)

From an e-book reader:• “an additional and equally important

point” (Hughes, 2004: chapter 3, section 2, paragraph 8)

Bibliographic reference

Via e-book collection• Author • (Year of publication of book)• Title of book.• Name of e-book collection• [Online].• Available at: URL• (accessed: date).

Bibliographic reference

• Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (2001) Splintering urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological motilities and the urban condition. Netlibrary [Online]. Available at: http://www.netlibrary.com (Accessed: 11 November 2012).

Bibliographic reference

e-book reader• Author • (Year of publication of book)• Title of book.• Title of download collection• [e-book reader].• Available at: URL• (accessed: date).

Bibliographic reference

• Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Ebooks.com [e-book reader]. Available at: http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=161294 (Accessed: 29 October 2012).

Summary• Don’t overlook as a resource if

not immediately visible.• Use as print surrogate or for

added value elements• Varied appearance and access

points• Citation varies from that for a

print book

Image Credits[Slide 2] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by demonsub. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/66397367@N05/6993902269

[Slide 3] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by Maradento. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/61574452@N00/18480388

[Slide 4] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by Johan Larsson. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38305415@N00/6966883093/

[Slide 6] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by Wouter de Bruijn. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/26646199@N05/4245891298

[Slide 9] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by R Scott Photography . Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31212777@N05/5233002616/

[Slide 14] Via Flickr Creative Commons, by Kirsty Andrews. Original available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/47745961@N08/5169765739

[Slide 22] ‘Vitae®, © 2010 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited‘ Available at www.vitae.ac.uk/rdf

Measuring Researche

r Developm

entVitae Researcher Development Framework [see image credits]