Ebook Collections

Information on this page pertains to library services during Lafayette’s period of remote teaching and learning.

While Skillman and Kirby Libraries are closed and our physical collections are inaccessible, try these collections for locating electronic books.

Library Catalog

Use the location limit feature in the Library Catalog to get at the hundreds of thousands of ebooks we already have in our collection.

  1. Go to the Advanced Keyword Search form.
  2. Enter search terms.
  3. Scroll to the last entry on the Location limit search box and select World Wide Web.
  4. Click the Submit button in the search terms box.

eBook Comprehensive Academic Collection

This collection of academic ebooks from a variety of publishers is temporarily available through June 15, 2020.

HathiTrust Digital Library

HathiTrust Digital Library has temporarily opened access to in-copyright books that are in our physical collections and that are also in Hathi’s digital collections. This means that if you find a book that we have in our print collection, there’s a good chance that you can get to it from Hathi.

  1. Visit https://www.hathitrust.org/ and Log In in the upper right corner.
  2. Books that match our print collection will display a “Temporary Access” label.
  3. Clicking on “Temporary Access” allows you to “check out” the book for an hour.
  4. If you continue reading by scrolling or flipping pages, your checkout will automatically be extended.
  5. We can only use the number of copies that we have in our print collection, which in most cases is one, so click the “Return early” button if you finish with the book before your time expires.

Note that no downloading is available for these temporary access titles

JSTOR Books Expanded Access

Some publishers are making their books temporarily available on JSTOR, so you can now access more books in JSTOR than you’ll find listed in the Library Catalog. Start at JSTOR’s advanced search page and limit your search by item type “Books.”

Project Muse Expanded Access

Some publishers are making their books temporarily available on Project Muse, so you can now access more books in JSTOR than you’ll find listed in the Library Catalog. Start at Muse’s advanced search page and limit your search to content type “Books.”

Bloomsbury Free Access

Bloomsbury is providing free access to all of their ebooks on the Bloomsbury Collections platform, through May 31.

National Emergency Library

Also known as the Internet Archive’s Open Library, the National Emergency Library provides access to digitized books from library’s across the country and is particularly useful for finding non-academic books. Consult Skillman’s Open Library guide for help.

Ask a Librarian

If you’re still not finding what you need or if all of this makes your head spin, please contact us for help. We may be able to buy what you need or, if a particular title is not available for purchase as an ebook, we can suggest alternatives.