WISER Oxford’s E-Books and how to use them Kate Williams and Hilla Wait

Structure of today’s session Value of e-books for teaching and research Overview of e-books in Oxford How to access and use them Time to explore

What is an ebook? e-book, n.  A hand-held electronic device on which the text of a book can be read. Also: a book whose text is available in an electronic format for reading on such a device or on a computer screen; (occas.) a book whose text is available only or primarily on the Internet.

Why do we want e-books? Print surrogates  Accessibility - 24/7 access for multiple users  Substitute for antiquarian texts  Space-saving  Do not deteriorate  No graffiti  Reduced processing costs Added value  Full-text searching  X-author searching  Reformatting, cut & paste, compilation  Textual mark-up  Group working  Quality control

What are the drawbacks Finding them Learning how to use them Access to computers Tiring to read on screen Illegal sites Do they encourage plagiarism?

E-books in Oxford How many do we have in Oxford? Electronic Reference Sources  Quick sources of information Short sessions, average 5 mins Electronic Primary Texts  Print surrogates with search options Session length, 20 mins + Electronic Secondary Texts  Print surrogates with search options Session length, mins +

How do we find Oxford’s E-books? Package or individual titles SOLO/OLIS (links to individual books) OxLIP+ (links to package) Diversity rules

On-Line philosophy texts Primary sources  Past Masters  Perseus  EEBO and ECCO  Wittgenstein Nachlaß Secondary sources  NetLibrary  Oxford Scholarship On-Line  Taylor & Francis (Routledge) E-books  Cambridge Companions On-Line  Blackwell Reference On-Line

Searching for e-books in SOLO 1000s of E-books included in SOLO Listed alongside print books Can search as normal Look for “1 of X versions” link - groups editions and print/electronic together Click online access for direct link to the e- book

Searching for e-books in SOLO Can limit your search to e-books: Limit item type to books Limit collections to online resources

Searching for e-books in Oxlip+

Electronic Reference Sources Oxford Reference On-Line Dictionary of National Biography Blackwell Reference On-Line Grove Encyclopaedia of Music Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Oxford Reference On-Line

Electronic Primary Texts Past Masters  Philosophy, English, Theology, Politics Early English Books Online ECCO Making of the Modern World World Bank e-Library

Past Masters Expand package → author→title Using the Table of Contents Changing the display Navigating the text Searching by simple search Power search Cross database searching Results Map Proximity search

World Bank E-Book Library

Making of the Modern World

Secondary Texts NetLibrary  Social Sciences and Humanities MyILibrary  Law and Social Sciences Taylor & Francis  Humanities and Education Oxford Scholarship Online  Political Science, Economics & Finance, Theology, Philosophy ACLS Humanities E-Books  History Science Direct (Elsevier)  Handbooks in Economics and Statistics

NetLibrary

MyILibrary

Oxford Scholarship On-Line

Blackwell Reference On-Line

Taylor & Francis

Free e-books Project Gutenberg Google project Intute  peer-reviewed The Internet  Not peer-reviewed  Basic scanned older editions  Not always legal

Forthcoming Cambridge Histories On-Line De Gruyter e-books Oxford Scholarship On-Line –  Classics and English

And finally Live demonstrations  Past Masters, MyILibrary, WorldBank, NetLibrary, Taylor & Francis, Oxford Scholarship On-Line, MOMW, Requests Practice opportunities Questions