eBook Collections Usage Guide: About Our Collections

As the distribution and presentation of information increasingly centers around the use of digital technologies, libraries have adapted by building electronic collections. A large part of the Marriott Library's digital collections are comprised of journal articles and reference works, but also a significant number of ebooks. In contrast to physical books, our ebooks are not stored in the library or even in a single location - ebooks are generally provided to the library as part of databases. Databases contain hundreds or thousands of ebooks, and are accessed over the internet. These databases in turn are organized by the library into collections, which are groups of databases that fall under a given subject or have other shared attributes.

The Marriott Library's ebook collections are made up of a wide variety of works, mostly from the arts, sciences and humanities. Because our collections constantly change, the best place to go for current information about them is the eBook Database Page. That page provides a single list that describes all the ebook databases the Marriott Library has access to. You can view information about what type of information a database contains, the date ranges a database covers, whether a database is freely accessible or paid for by the library, and restriction information such as the number of users allowed on a database simultaneously or what other restrictions may apply (see Access Restrictions for more information).

Just like with paper books, there will always be a limit to the number of ebooks we can purchase and distribute to patrons at the Marriott Library. This means that we must evaluate which ebooks we purchase based on how relevant they will be academically and build our collections around useful, high-quality cultural and scholarly information that has lasting value to the University and its patrons.

The Marriott Library focuses on purchasing ebooks (and physical books) that are of academic importance, significant cultural value, or general usefulness to our patrons. Books that exist purely for enjoyment or have no particular merits aside from being popular are usually not purchased. There are of course exceptions to that rule, and occasionally if a book is needed by a patron for a specific project or there is sufficient interest in a particular book among the library's patrons, we may buy it regardless of whether the ebook would otherwise be considered a valuable scholarly resource. We are always interested in suggestions for new ebooks to purchase, and you may request that we buy an ebook (or print copy, if no ebook exists) by using the Suggest A Purchase Form.