The LUC Libraries have a large collection of books available in electronic format. We use a number of different vendors to provide e-books, depending on the availability of titles. The vendors and ways we purchase them, result in different access and functionality.
Below are the ebook collections we use along with details of their features, instructions, and policies. For more details, see the respective collection's "About" or "Help" pages.
NOTE: Be advised that not all books, particularly text books, are available as e-books.
| Vendor | Subject(s) | Description | Able to download? | Printing | Use rights | Number of users | Access provider | E-reader compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACLS Humanities E-Book Project | Humanities |
An online collection of nearly 5,000 books in the humanities. These titles are offered by the ACLS in collaboration with 31 learned societies, over 100 contributing publishers, and the Michigan Publishing division at the University of Michigan Library. |
Three pages at a time (as PDFs) | Ten pages at a time (from PDFs) | Follows fair-use rights and restrictions | No limit | Free from LUC | Subset of titles available to purchase for print-on-demand or handheld editions |
| Afro-Americana Imprints | African-American studies | One of the world's preeminent collections for African-American studies, this collection includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides, including many lesser-known imprints. Spans nearly 400 years (early 16th to early 20th century). | Current page (as PDF) or multiple sequential or set of selected pages (as PDF or TIFF, maximum of 25 pages) | Hard copy of current page; must download to print multiple pages | See Terms of Use | Unknown | Free from LUC | On mobile device using web browser |
| Aristoteles Latinus Database (Brepolis) | Humanities | The complete corpus of medieval translations of the works of Aristotle. Texts included are prepared and supervised by the Aristoteles Latinus Centre of the Catholic University of Leuven and produced in collaboration with the CTLO. | Can save searches as PDFs | Can print webpage view and print saved PDF searches | License Agreement available | Unknown | Free from LUC | No guarantee of accessibility in every software/hardware environment |
| American Theological Library Association (ATLA; through EBSCO) | Humanities (religion) | ATLA Historical Monographs Collection: Series 1 contains over five million pages of content and consists of titles from the 13th century through the 1893 World Parliament of Religions (majority of titles from the 19th century). Hhistorians researching a wide range of areas, not just religion, will find invaluable material relevant to their work. Series 2 consists of titles published from 1894 through 1923. This collection offers material on the significant shifts in the religious identification of Americans and the growing interest and experimentation with non-Western religions. | Current page (as PDF) or multiple sequential or set of selected pages (as PDF) | Can print after downloading as a PDF | License Agreement available | Unknown | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Cambridge Companions Online | Humanities (literature, classics, philosophy, religion, culture) | Full-text of over 200 Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics; and Philosophy, Religion and Culture. Includes over 2,200 essays on these topics | Individual chapters | Varies by book; usually either 1 chapter or twenty percent of collection in question | Need a rights license to reproduce entire work; Need permissions license to reproduce an extract; see Rights & Permissions | No limit (except for select order titles) | Free from LUC | Can be downloaded to up to 5 handheld devices |
| Cambridge Histories Online | History (politics, economics, social, philosophy, literature) | Historical reference compendium of renowned texts from the Cambridge Histories series, comprising over 250 volumes published since 1960. | Individual chapters | Varies by book; usually either 1 chapter or twenty percent of collection in question | Need a rights license to reproduce entire work; Need permissions license to reproduce an extract; see Rights & Permissions | No limit (except for select order titles) | Free from LUC | Can be downloaded to up to 5 handheld devices |
| Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts | Humanities (religion, history, political science), Sociology | A resource for historians, theologians, political scientists, and sociologists studying the religious and social upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries. Includes an extensive range of seminal works from the Reformation and post-Reformation eras. | No | Can print webpage view | Fair use permits reproduction of single copies for personal research and private use. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of protected items requires written permission of the copyright owners. | No limit | Free from LUC | On mobile device using web browser |
| Dissertation & Theses (ProQuest) | Various | Through active partnerships with more than 700 universities, this database disseminates and archives of more than 90,000 new graduate works each year. It includes bibliographic citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861 as well as European dissertations back from the 17th century, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Online access to the complete file of dissertations in digital format for hundreds of thousands of titles published before 1997, as well as nearly every title from 1997 forward. | Yes but changes printing and copying restrictions | 30% per book, per user session | Follows fair-use rights and restrictions; services designed to facilitate online internal research or for education purposes; see Terms & Conditions | Unknown | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Early English Books Online (EEBO) | Various | Contains images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Contains more than 130,000 titles and more than 17 million scanned pages as listed in four collections: Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalog (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalog (1641-1700), Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), and Early English Books Tract Supplement. | Book or custom range of pages (as PDFs); first must add to Marked List; See instructions on Help page | Book or custom range of pages (as PDFs); first must add to Marked List; See instructions on Help page | Subject to copyright restrictions, have statement on each page informing users of who copyright holder is; download, print, save, or email of materials permitted for individual's use; see FAQs | Uknown | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Economics & Finance E-Books from Oxford University Press | Economics and finance | New and classic Economics and Finance books from Oxford University Press. | As PDFs; single chapter | As PDFs, print single chapter for personal use | See legal notice | Unknown | Free from LUC | Fully mobile optimized |
| Eighteenth Century Collection Digital Archives (ECCO) | Various (history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science, etc.) | Digital images of every page of books published during the 18th Century, this database provides full-text searching in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. | Up to 250 pages at a time (larger works-download via two separate downloads with different page ranges) | A single copy of a permitted portion of the content; up to 250 pages at a time | May make a single print, non-electronic copy of a permitted portion of the content for personal, non-commercial, education purposes only. Specifics vary with different collection material; see Terms & Conditions | No limit | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature, 1450-1850 | Economics and business | Digital facsimile images on every page of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Provides full-text searching on more than 12 million pages. | Current page (as PDF) or page ranges up to 250 pages at a time (as PDFs) | A single copy of a permitted portion of the content; up to 250 pages at a time | May make a single print, non-electronic copy of a permitted portion of the content for personal, non-commercial, education purposes only. Specifics vary with different collection material; see Terms & Conditions | No limit | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Humanities E-Book Project | Humanities | An online collection of around 5,000 books of high quality in the humanities chosen by scholars and scholarly societies. Fields currently covered include Area and Historical Studies in the following: African, American, Asian, Australasian/Oceanican, Byzantine, Canadian, Caribbean, Central European, Comparative/World, Eastern European/Russian, Economic, Environmental, European, Jewish Studies, Latin American, Law, LGBT/Queer Studies, Medicine, Methods/Theory, Middle East, Native Peoples of the Americas, Science/Technology, Women’s Studies. HEB also encompasses the fields of Archeology, Art and Architectural History, Biblical Studies, Bibliographic Studies, Film and Media Studies, Folklore, Linguistics, Literature, Literary Criticism, Musicology, Performance Studies (theater, music, dance), Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, and Sociology. | 10 pages at a time | 10 pages at a time; for best results choose PDF viewing option | Most material licensed for online electronic distribution only, so users restricted to printing pages for personal research use and fair use; See Copyright and Fair Use | No limit | Free from LUC |
HEB currently offers a subset of titles from its online collection as downloadable/ mobile editions formatted for use with various handheld devices. HEB is working toward incorporating these editions into a subscriptions package in the future. For the time being, the books can be purchased individually for $9.99 each from a number of sources. See Handheld Editions page for more information and a list of titles available as handhelds |
| Library of Latin Texts | Latin literature | Containing over 53 million Latin words, drawn from more than 2800 works that are attributed to approximately 860 authors. The selected texts are from the beginning of Latin literature (Livius Andronius, 240 BC) through to the 2nd Vatican Council (1962-65). | Can save searches as PDFs | Can print webpage view and print saved PDF searches | License Agreement available | Unknown | Free from LUC | No guarantee of accessibility in every software/hardware environment |
| PsycBooks | Psychology | Full-text of over 1566 scholarly books and over 24,000 chapters published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Includes the Oxford Press Encyclopedia of Psychology, and 50 classic books in psychology dating from the early 19th century. | Create account to download and "checkout" the whole book for up to 7 days; otherwise can save up to 60 pages (or fewer depending on the publisher) at a time from the viewer as PDF | Up to 60 pages (or fewer depending on the publisher) of an e-book can per user as a PDF file from within the e-book Full Text viewer. In the viewer, use the EBSCO print button, not the PDF print button | License Agreement Available | Depends on the book: 1,3, or unlimited users | Free from LUC | Whole book when "checked out" PDF, and some have ePub option |
| Safari Tech Books Online | Information Technology | A ready-reference resource covering certification, enterprise computing, Java, Linus/Unix, Web development, Windows, XML, and more technologies. Over 7,330 titles are available in their complete full text. | No | Individual pages | Near-unrestricted access | Limits to 6 simultaneous users on the account | Free from LUC | No |
| State Digital Resources | History | A Library of Congress guide to important digital collections that focus on State history. Includes online primary sources collections and encyclopedias. | Varies depending on the specific project you are using | Varies depending on the specific project you are using | Freely available; intended for reference use only, generally do not own rights to materials in collection so you must determine whether an item is protected by copyright, in public domain, or can be used through fair use. See the LOC's Legal page | Unknown | Free on the Web | Varies depending on the specific project you are using |
| Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875 | Literature | Full-text electronic archive based on the bibliography compiled by Lyle Wright. Consists of over 1,700 novels and other works of fiction published between 1851-1875 with plans to add almost 1,300 more by the end of 2002 to complete the collection. | All monographs in XML format; monographs with available page image scans as PDFs | As PDFs | Though these digitized books were published before 1923, Indiana University cannot be certain that any particular materials are in public domain. Materials protected by copyright law may be used only with permission from copyright owner or within limits of fair use; See Copyright & Conditions of Use | Unknown | Free from LUC | Unknown |
| Vendor | Description | Able to download? | Printing | Use rights | Number of users | Access provider | E-reader compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archive.org (Internet Archive) |
A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Serves millions of people each day, and is one of the top 300 web sites in the world. |
Whole book; streaming files are online use only | Whole book (options include: PDF, epub, DAISY, Kindle, and more) | Near unrestricted. See link for more information | No limit | Free on the Web | ePub, Kindle, DAISY, Mobi, DJVU; Website designed for mobile and desktop users |
| EBSCOhost eBook Collection | Provides full-text access to electronic books, including reference books, scholarly monographs, university press publications and consumer books. | Create account to download and "checkout" the whole book for up to 7 days; otherwise can save up to 60 pages (or fewer depending on the publisher) at a time from the viewer as pdf | Up to 60 pages (or fewer depending on the publisher) of an e-book can per user as a PDF file from within the e-book Full Text viewer. In the viewer, use the EBSCO print button, not the pdf print button | License Agreement available | Depends on the book: 1,3, or unlimited users | Free from LUC | Whole book when "checked out" pdf, and some have ePub option |
| eScholarship Editions | Provides free access to over 400 titles from the University of California Press. | No | Print View option available | Most parts publicly accessible, certain services may be restricted to specific users or segments of University of California population; see Terms & Conditions | Unknown | Free on the Web | Unknown |
| Google Books | Allows you to search the full text of millions of titles in all subject areas. | Whole book (from Google Books not Google Play) | Public domain books can be printed (from pdf) | If the book is out of copyright or publisher has given permission, preview of the book is viewable, and in some cases the entire text. If the work is in the public domain, a PDF copy can be downloaded. See Terms of Service | No limit | Free on the Web | ePub and PDF (android, iphone, and ipad apps available) |
| HathiTrust | Contains digital materials from participating libraries; includes content in the public domain. | Depends on book; Page by page (non-affiliates) or whole book (with partner login) | Page by page (non-affiliates) or whole book (with partner login); HathiTrust PDFs are not optimized for printing | Many works protected by copyright and cannot be accessed without permission from copyright holder; currently displaying works in the public domain (such as US works published before 1923), uncopyrightable works (such as US government works), or works with permission from copyright holder; access restricted for users outside US to US-published works including and after 1877. | No limit | Free on the Web | Depends on book; mobile friendly site; can be downloaded as PDF |
| Oxford Scholarship Online Books | An online e-book library from Oxford University Press. Covers subjects across the humanities, economics and political sciences. | No | As PDFs, print single chapter for personal use | See legal notice | Unknown | Free from LUC | Fully mobile optimized |
| Project Gutenberg | Electronic versions of books and plays no longer in copyright. | Whole book (as textfile, html, or format for e-readers) | Whole book | Free in the United States because their copyright has expired; May not be free of copyright in other countries. | No limit | Free on the Web | Whole book (Nook, Kindle, Sony eReader, iPad, Android); See link for how-tos |
| ProQuest Ebook Central (previously EBL & ebrary) | Allows you to search, browse, and preview e-books and other authoritative materials offered from leading publishers. The largest ebook platform used at at Loyola Libraries. | Individual pages, chapters, or whole book totaling 40% of book's pages (limits reset after 24 hours); specific book's download limits on book's Detail page; May depend on availability of book; Pages and chapters downloaded as PDFs that don't expire; Can download as EPUB | Page ranges ("Print to PDF"), "Chapter Download," or entire book totaling 40% of book's pages (limits reset after 24 hours); Specifc book's printing page limit on book's Detail page. | Use for research or educational purposes as allowed under fair use. See Terms & Conditions | Depends on the book and its availability | Free from LUC | Whole book; iOS (iPhone and iPad), most e-readers (some may require a specific e-book format or app not compatible with all e-book files), and Android; Requires installation of Bluefire reader and free Adobe ID); Nook HD devices cannot be used with Adobe Digital Editions |
| Vendor | Description | Able to download? | Printing | Use rights | Number of users | Access provider | E-reader compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC CLIO Electronic Reference Library |
Offers the same high-quality, authoritative, scholarly information researchers have come to expect from ABC-CLIO plus enhanced readability via a new reading pane, improved search and browse capabilities, and more. |
No | Page, chapter, or range of pages | License Agreement available | No limit | Free from LUC | All mobile devices |
| Brill Online Reference Works | Provides access to all Brill reference works which Loyola subscribes to. These resources are also listed individually on the database list. Loyola subscriptions will be designated with a green box. | Whole book | Whole book (from Read PDF) | Need permission to re-use parts of a work. See Rights and Permissions | No limit | Free from LUC | Whole book (PDF) |
| Gale Virtual Reference Library | Database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. | Individual entries/articles/chapters (depending on the book) as html or pdf | The number of pages may depend on the individual publisher specified limits | May make a single print, non-electronic copy of a permitted portion of the content for personal, non-commercial, education purposes only; Specifics vary with different collection material; see Terms & Conditions | No limit | Free from LUC | Individual entries,articles,chapters (download pdf to eReader); Can download as PDF, HTML, or MP3 or to Google Drive or OneDrive |
| Oxford Reference Online | Over 100 reference titles covering a broad range of subjects: everything from General Reference, Language and Quotations to Science and Medicine, and from Humanities and Social Sciences to Business and Professional. | No | Individual entries only; Restrictions on systematic download | See legal notice | No limit | Free from LUC | Fully mobile optimized |
| Sage Knowledge (Sage Reference Online) | Contains over 60 of Sage's authoritative and award-winning encyclopedias. Browse by either the Readers Guide, Entries, A to Z listing or by Index. | Individual chapters (as PDF) | Individual chapters from viewer or PDF | Unless there are other copyright notices to the contrary, no copyright is claimed in the text of certain public domain documents/images available. Certain content and materials available are largely factual in nature and therefore available for copying and reuse, but any reproduction, distribution, display, or modification of materials requires written permission from SAGE Permissions Department. See Terms of Use. | No limit | Free from LUC | Individual chapters (PDF) |