E-books
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Index
A
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
A collection of freely available electronic books, including items from American literature, English literature, and Western philosophy.
Amazon Search Inside the Book
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Amazon's Search Inside the Book feature allows you to search and access selected full-text from over 120,000 titles. More than 190 publishers are participating including Wiley, Time Warner Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Inc., Random House, Inc., Publishers Group West, Incorporated, McGraw-Hill Professional, Holtzbrinck Publishers and HarperCollins Publishers.
Run a search and click on the book title of interest. If Look Inside or Search Inside appears above the image of the book cover, click on the book cover. On the next screen, under the book cover, you should see either Search Inside This Book or Look Inside This Book. Click on this in order to locate the exact pages within the book that contain your keyword. You'll need to register with Amazon in order to access the full text.
Full instructions are available.
American Hypertexts
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Online texts of American literature, including Crevecoeur, de Tocqueville, Henry Adams, Mark Twain and more.
American Natural Science in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"This digital book collection from the Academy of Natural Sciences provides full digitized copies of several works of early nineteenth century American naturalism. Authors included are John Audubon, Thomas Nuttall, Thomas Say, and other ornithologists, naturalists, and entomologists. Also made available are volumes one through eight of the The Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1817-1842)."
B
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Date range:1500 -
Subject coverage: the immediate experiences of 430 women, as revealed in approximately 80,000 pages of diaries and letters
Data retrieved: full-text diaries and letters
Service provider: Alexander Street Press
Access notes: For off-campus use, this service requires a login. Follow the link for accessing it from outside MMU and you will see the login details after first entering your MMU network ID and password. Make a note of the details, follow the link to the service, and then log in as required.
C
CELT - Corpus of Electronic Texts
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"Brings the wealth of Irish literary and historical culture to the Internet, for the use and benefit of everyone worldwide. It has a searchable online database consisting of contemporary and historical texts from many areas, including literature and the other arts."
ClassicBookshelf.com
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Provides free full-text access to classic fiction, including Jane Austen, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, D H Lawrence and Bram Stoker.
Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Established 1993, this site provides access to the complete set of Shakespeare's plays and poetry.
D
Dawsonera
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: A wide range of subjects with social sciences, education and technology having the greatest representation. At present MMU has access to individual e-books and not larger subject collections.
Date range: Various
Data retrieved: Full-text of electronic books
Service provider: Dawson Books
Access notes: In order to only search for books to which MMU has access, it's important to check the Owned box in Advanced search.
Off-campus users must login to view ebooks. If you are following a link to an ebook from the library catalogue or Find It! service, please follow these instructions:
- Click the Login button next to Enter your institutional username and password.
- Open the drop-down menu, scroll down and select Manchester Metropolitan University.
- Click the Proceed button.
- You will be taken to the MMU Login page; login with your MMU network username and password.
- You will be redirected to the Dawsonera Reader Portal.
- Use the menu options at the top of the page to search for the ebook you require.
Please note: If you want to print pages from a Dawsonera book, you must use the Print button within Dawsonera. This may be found on the left-hand side of any dawsonera page - but you may have to scroll down in order to find it.
Documenting the American South
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. As of September 1, 2002, DAS includes [full-text] 1,168 books and manuscripts." Developed and maintained by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
E
Ebrary
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Searching electronic books is free, but you will need to pay ebrary directly if you wish to view, print out or download any pages. You must also download some free software before you can use the service. Subjects include architecture, arts, business/economics, literature, education, history, philosophy, political science, social sciences, science and technology.
EBSCOhost eBook Collection
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: All subject areas
Date range: Some titles go back to the beginning of the 20th century but most titles, 1999-
Updated: Annually
Data retrieved: Contents pages and full-text of books
Service provider: EBSCOhost
Access notes: The EBSCOhost eBook Collection provides access to the MMU collection of e-books formerly provided by NetLibrary. E-books are digital versions of print books; available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week via the Internet.
There are limits to the numbers of people who can use this service at any one time. If you are denied access, it may be that the maximum number has been reached. Try again in 15 minutes or so.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to access certain titles. NetLibrary have provided additonal help for people using Apple Macs to access their service.
Users have to log in to get full printing privileges whether on-campus or off-campus. This allows you to print up to 15 pages per e-book per hour i.e. a user can print 15 pages from one e-book, 15 pages from a second e-book, 15 pages from a third e-book and so on in the same one-hour period of time. Pages can also be cut and pasted one at a time. Users also need to log in to access Notes and other features.
Off-campus users accessing an EBSCOhost eBook Collection e-book through the Library catalogue or a Find it! link should follow these instructions:
- Do not enter your login details on the page that appears but, instead, follow the link to Shibboleth Login.
- From the Select your region or group drop-down menu, select UK Higher Education.
- From the list of institutions that appears, select Manchester Metropolitan University.
- You will be taken to the MMU Login page, where you can enter your username and password and click Login to continue.
- You will then be taken to the e-book.
AOL users may encounter problems when trying to use the EBSCOhost eBook Collection using the AOL browser. See our technical help for AOL users for details and solutions.
F
Free Books for Doctors
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
FreeBooks4Doctors is "dedicated to the promotion of free access to medical books over the internet" The full text of over 600 medical books in English, French, German and Spanish is available. The site contains both specialist and more general books.
G
Google Books
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Google Books lets you search the full text of books that Google has scanned. Where a book is out of copyright you can see the full text. If it is still in copyright you will only be able to read excerpts, though the full text is still searchable.
H
Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Press
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
The HSRC is "South Africa's statutory research agency dedicated to the applied social sciences. Through its publishing projects and widespread dissemination of valuable social science information, the HSRC Press promotes dialogue in civil society and in academic communities, and helps academics to build on existing research and work together to find possible solutions to developmental problems in southern Africa. The HSRC Press has adopted a dual-medium publishing strategy, in terms of which it makes available its research material in both print form and electronically, with all HSRC Press products available for free electronic download."
Humanities Text Initiative
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
The Humanities Text Initiative, a unit of the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Service, has provided online access to full text resources since 1994. The Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) is an umbrella organization for the creation, delivery, and maintenance of electronic texts, as well as a mechanism for furthering the library community's capabilities in the area of online text. The collections are freely available. Emphasis is on American, and religious works.
I
International Children's Digital Library
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create a digital library of international children's books. This five-year research project, being conducted by the University of Maryland/College Park (UMCP) and the Internet Archive, has five primary goals ... [including] ... to create a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least 100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet ... "
Internet Archive
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form and provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public."
The service consists of 4 separate collections:
- Moving Images (more than 100,000 movies)
- Live Music Archive (more than 45,000 concerts)
- Audio (more than 200,000 recordings)
- Texts (more than 350,000 books, pamphlets and other documents)
J
JISC Historic Books
Available within MMU and outside MMU (login required)
JISC Historic Books contains the full text or page images of over 300,000 books published in England before 1800. The service draws together content from two of the best-known and longest-established early book collections:
- EEBO (Early English Books Online)
- The scanned images and (increasingly) full-text digital versions of over 125,000 books published in English up to 1700, from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
- ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)
- A digital collection of all the books published in Great Britain and its colonies during the eighteenth century, comprising some 33 million pages from more than 180,000 titles. The collection includes books in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Welsh.
Uniquely, and never before available online, JISC Historic Books also includes:
- Nineteenth Century books from the British Library collection
- Digitised versions of more than 65,000 first editions from the 19th century, covering philosophy, history, poetry and literature. The collection extends to over 25 million pages of previously rare and inaccessible content, and includes the original typeface and illustrations for each book.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Over 600 books and research findings available to download for free from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The JRF are one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK. The research is carried out in partnership with a large variety of academic and other institutions.
K
Knovel
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: A range of full text electronic books covering: Adhesives, Sealants, Coatings & Inks; Aerospace & Radar Technology; Biochemistry, Biology & Biotechnology; Ceramics & Ceramic Engineering; Chemistry & Chemical Engineering; Construction Materials; Electrical & Power Engineering; Environmental Engineering; Food Science; General Engineering References; Mechanics & Mechanical Engineering; Metals & Metallurgy; Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics & Toiletries; Plastics & Rubbers; Safety, Health & Hygiene; Semiconductors & Electronics.
Date range: Current
Updated: Frequently
Data retrieved: Full-text
Service provider: Knovel
Access notes: For off-campus use, this service requires a login.
Off-campus users must login to view ebooks. If you are following a link to an ebook from the Library Catalogue or Find It! service, please follow these instructions:
- Select Login Now.
- On the Knovel login page, under the heading Normally access Knovel through another site? select UK Federation (Shibboleth).
- Type in the name of your organisation - Manchester Metropolitan University.
- Select Continue.
- You will be taken to the MMU Login page; login with your MMU network username and password.
Please note, you may be asked to create a profile with Knovel the first time you login. Either enter a name and email address to create a profile or choose the option to bypass this process.
M
Making of America Books
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The book collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books with 19th century imprints."
Medieval Sources Online
Available within MMU only (no login required)
Medieval Sourcesonline provides access to full text documents, including original sources, covering the Medieval period (640 - 1600). Sources are edited with introductory and explanatory text. Texts are viewed using Acrobat Reader and single copies can be downloaded for education purposed. Subjects covered:
- Women in medieval times
- The Black Death
- Dark Age Scotland
- The Anglo-Saxons
- The Crusades
- Medieval warfare
- Charlemagne and the Carolingian dynasty
- Monasticism
- The Hundred Years War
- The Magna Carta and King John
- The Norman Conquest
- The Vikings
The Medievalportal provides a gateway to alternative web sources concerning medieval topics.
MyiLibrary
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage:An e-book collection providing access to a range of electronic texts covering various subjects.
Date range: 1999 -
Data retrieved: Full-text of electronic books.
Service provider:MyiLibrary
To login to a MyiLibrary book from a link on the library catalogue or from off-campus, the procedure is as follows:
- Under Institutional login, from the Select your location drop-down menu, choose UK Access Management Federation and press the Go button.
- Follow the Manchester Metropolitan University link from the list that appears.
- When you see the MMU login page, enter your MMU network ID and password.
N
National Academies Press
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
The US-based National Academy Press provides free access to more than 2,500 of its electronic books. You may search, read, and print individual pages (subject to copyright restrictions). Subject areas include the sciences, food and nutrition, education, environment, public policy, public health, urban development and economics.
O
Ohio State University Press Open Access Initiative
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Sixty free online books, primarily in the disciplines of literature, history and sociology. Titles currently include:
- The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual
- Libertine Strategies: Freedom and the Novel in Seventeenth-Century France
- Shakespeare's Patterns of Self-Knowledge
- Social Protest in the Eighteenth-Century English Novel
On-line Books Page
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Maintained by the University of Pennsylvania, this site provides a search engine to locate over 15,000 free electronic books provided by a range of international publishers and agencies. Virtually all subjects are covered. Both historical texts and recent publications are included.
Online Economics Textbooks
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Online textbooks covering the subject areas of microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, game theory and public finance.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: Biographical information on more than 50,000 individuals "who shaped the history of the British Isles"
Updated: quarterly
Data retrieved: Full text plus more than 10,000 images
Service supplier: Oxford University Press
Off-campus users will need to log in to use this service. Click the prompt to login via your home institution. This will bring you to a page asking you to identify your institution. Scroll down the list to Manchester Metropolitan University and click Proceed. This will then bring you to the MMU login page where you enter your MMU ID and password.
Oxford English Dictionary Online
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: Electronic edition of the OED, including definitions, etymologies and quotations
Date range: Current
Updated: Quarterly
Data retrieved: Full-text
Service provider: Oxford University Press
Access notes: Be sure to log out of the OED Online by clicking on the Signout button. If you don't log out properly and there is a long period of inactivity before you use the OED again, you may find that your access is blocked. Logging out and then logging in again when you wish to use the service should help to avoid this problem.
P
Project Gutenberg
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.
R
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Available within MMU (no login required) and outside MMU (login required)
Subject coverage: Over 2,000 articles on all aspects of philosophy ranging from aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, and religion.
Date range: 1998-
Updated: Quarterly
Data retrieved: Provides the full text version of the printed Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy.
Service provider: Routledge
U
United Nations University Press Books
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
Free full-text electronic books in the following subject areas: land management, development, environment and sustainability, food and nutrition, natural resources development.
University of California Press eScholarship Editions
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
The University of California Press eScholarship Editions are made available through a partnership between the University of California Press and the California Digital Library's eScholarship program. Nearly 400 of the titles are available to the general public; the rest are for University of California faculty, staff, and students only.
University of Virginia Library's Etext Center
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
1,600 publicly-available ebooks including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, American history, Shakespeare, African-American documents, the Bible, and much more.
W
Wikibooks
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
A free textbook project: "Wikibooks is dedicated to developing and disseminating free, open content textbooks and other classroom texts."
Wikisource
Available within MMU and outside MMU (no login required)
"Wikisource is a project to create a repository of source texts in any language which are either in the public domain, or are released under the GFDL... Wikisource currently has 803 pages."
This page is maintained by relevant subject staff. If you have comments or suggestions, please e-mail lib-website@mmu.ac.uk