Using e-books for research Laura Jeffrey Researcher Training Librarian

E-books for research Use as part of your reading strategy – Keyword search – Annotate – Copy key quotations Then make use of the print resource for in depth reading Also give access to broader range of titles

Advantages of e-books Print surrogates – Accessibility - 24/7 access for multiple users – Some are virgin copies – Substitute for antiquarian texts – Do not deteriorate – Space-saving – Reduced processing costs

Advantages of e-books Added value – Full-text searching – Reformatting, cut & paste, compilation – Textual mark-up – Group working

Drawbacks Finding them Learning how to use them Access to computers Tiring to read on screen Publication dates Quality of image Illegal sites

Different providers Some catalogue entire book but allow full-text searching; others individual catalogue chapters Some display book within the database; others link to a separate pdf Some scanned items (possibly text searchable); others free text

Finding e-books Durham University catalogue – Individual titles – Collections Monographs Reference Historic Databases and e-books groupings

Finding e-books Free books on the web – Book previews – Out of copyright – Open access

Hands on Use the library catalogue to find e-book Browse the collections from Databases|Other Online Resources|e-books OR Online Reference Look at free books on the web (also available from above pages)

In text citations From 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]. Avaliable at: URL (accessed: date).

Bibliographic reference Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (2001) Splintering urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition. Netlibrary [Online]. Available at: (Accessed: 11 Novmeber 2010).

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

Bibliographic reference Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Ebooks.com [e-book reader]. Available at: y.asp?IID= (Accessed: 29 October 2010). y.asp?IID=161294

Summary Use as print surrogate or for added value elements Varied appearance and access points Citation varies from that for a print book