LIBRARY-NEWS
Issue no. 69, May 26, 2000

NetLibrary eBooks

The University of Illinois at Chicago Library is pleased to announce that eBooks are available through NetLibrary. This service is provided by the State of Illinois through the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL). eBooks are electronic versions of printed books. There are some 1,500 electronic books, published through 1999, available in the database covering arts and entertainment, business and economy, computers and internet, education, government and law, health, history, humanities, recreation and sports, science and technology, social sciences, and society and culture. The books that are available have been selected from a larger list by a group of Illinois librarians. In browsing the list of available titles, those not selected will have a note: "This book not part of your library's collection." If there is no note, the book will be able for full text viewing.

Books can be searched by author or title as well as keywords and phrases in the text. Each book retrieved initially can be viewed for 15 minutes. If it is needed for a longer period of time it may be "checked out" for 2 hours. Users will be asked to create an account to "check out" an eBook. At the end of 2 hours it will be returned to the collection. If no one wants the book after 2 hours, it may be renewed for another 2 hours.

A check of all available titles in UICCAT indicates that 50% of them are not available in paper at UIC. Full cataloging of the eBooks is being considered so that they will be available through UICCAT. To access NetLibrary and the eBooks, go to the URL http://www.netlibrary.com or click on NetLibrary in alphabetical list of databases on the Library's homepage at http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib . Comments on the use of this database are welcome and should directed to H. Robert Malinowsky at hrm@uic.edu .

Library-News is an electronic newsletter reporting on major acquisitions in the UIC Library, news of changes in the library that may impact on service, and news of newly acquired electronic resources.

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To view earlier issues of Library-News go to the URL: http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/news/ and for comments and questions send note to the Editor, H. Robert Malinowsky at hrm@uic.edu .

H. Robert Malinowsky
Professor and Manager of
Collections Development and Reference
University of Illinois at Chicago Library