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eBooks: Guide

How to find and use eBooks through the MSOE library.

The library's eBooks

The MSOE Library offers access to over 700,000 eBooks. In fact, we offer far more eBooks than we do paper ones!

How to find eBooks

The easiest way to find eBooks is to do a search in Summon, the library's discovery service. Search by title, author, keyword, or other field, and then filter your results down to books/eBooks and further limit the results to items with full text available online. You can do this using advanced search or by using filters on the side panel of the results page.

advanced search interface with filters for ebooks and full text online highlighted

This automatically searches the majority of content available in our licensed databases, as well as eBooks owned by the library. If we have access to an eBook that meets your search criteria, you'll most likely find it this way.

You can also search for eBooks in individual databases. Some databases specialize in eBooks, while others contain eBooks in addition to many other formats. (A list of databases containing eBooks appears on this page.) Searching in specific databases is a good second step to take if you don't find what you're looking for using Summon. Individual databases may offer different searching and filtering tools than the ones available in Summon.

Reading and downloading eBooks

The library offers eBooks through a number of vendors, and each vendor has slightly different methods for accessing eBooks. Some require users to view content on the website, some allow direct downloads of complete books, and some allow partial downloading or require users to use third-party software to view downloaded materials.

The library doesn't offer any materials compatible with direct download to Kindle, Kobo, or Nook devices, but some vendors offer apps that are compatible with iOS or Android apps. (You may still be able to transfer PDFs to your e-reader if direct PDF download is supported by the database vendor.)

Generally speaking, you should be able to view eBooks without issue using a computer with an internet connection.

If you have suggestions for how to make this page better, please contact Elizabeth Jerow, Assistant Library Director (jerow@msoe.edu).