Library Catalog

The Libraries’ Catalog contains records for print and online materials owned by all of the UB Libraries.

• Search Options:
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Examples:
university buffalo history
famil* sociology
(woman OR women) workplace

E-Books at UB

What are e-books?

E-books (eBooks, e-books) are books in digital form. Some e-books are simple facsimiles of printed books; others incorporate features only possible in a digital environment, such as hyperlinks, interactivity, and audio-visual material. Some ebooks offer the pagination of the printed text; others do not. Different e-book platforms, and their proprietary readers, offer different features such as print, cut/paste, note taking, citation management, and read aloud. Some do essentially the same thing but through different interfaces. Further, e-books can be read with several reader programs, all of which work a little differently. These include Adobe Reader X, Adobe Digital Editions, various Google readers, and Sony Reader software. E-books also come in different formats, each of which offers different possibilities; these formats include PDF, ePub, and html. For a discussion of some of the above considerations see E-Readers, Computers, and More: Downloading E-Texts (PDF).

Are e-books available from UB Libraries?

Yes, and the number is growing daily! There are many e-book collections available through the UB Libraries, books from most can be downloaded and read off line. Many titles may be identified by using the Libraries' Catalog. While individual books that comprise collections are included in the catalog, there are often advantages to searching in a given collection. The foremost advantage is the ability to do full text searching across all the titles of a collection.

All the e-books available through the Libraries are readable on computers in the Libraries. Most can also be read both on and off campus on a diversity of devices. To download or read on your own computer or other device, you’ll need to sign on with your UBIT name and password. Some of our books are available in both digital and print format. You can identify these by checking the Libraries' Catalog.

Are there free e-books?

Yes, there are many free e-books and many will load happily on Kindles, Nooks, and Sony readers – among other devices. Foremost among sources of free e-books are appropriate titles in Project Gutenberg, Google Books, and the HathiTrust Digital Library; but there are other sources as well.

How do I find e-books?

Our e-books are in our Libraries' Catalog. While e-books may be identified in other ways, it is easiest to use the Libraries' Catalog and select the e-books tab. Then enter search terms to retrieve a list of individual e-books owned by the Libraries. Always, check Google Books and the HathiTrust Digital Library if there’s a book you’d like to use in digital form. This is because there will sometimes be a preview even of new texts. While incomplete, this may be all you need for your project. To this end, also check Amazon. Its Search Inside the Book feature may be available for the needed title.

How do I use and download e-books?

For detailed guidance on downloading e-books, that is, saving them to the full range of electronic devices, seed E-Readers, Computers, and More: Downloading E-Texts to which it refers. Download guidance for individual products (collections) are included in the descriptions for titles which may be accessed from each product’s hyperlinked listing in the chart.

Who can use the e-books the Libraries have purchased?

All of our e-books can be used by current UB students, faculty, and staff; most without directly signing into the product. Some require a UBIT name and password for access. In all instances, your privacy is protected through encryption. Most prominent among e-books unavailable to individuals not affiliated with the University are those in Ebook Library (EBL).

Many ebooks are available to anyone from anywhere. These include books in the public domain, as well as books published by the United States and by other governments, including various intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

Which devices (e-readers, tablets, smart phones, and computers) can I use with e-books?

Most of our e-books will load on a variety of devices. Kindles are most restrictive; but more will load on a Kindle than you might think. For guidance on downloading, see E-Readers, Computers, and More: Downloading E-Texts to which it refers. Know your device is always the best advice – if you know the capabilities of your device you’ll know the formats it can handle.

E-Journals

When searching for an e-journal you are checking to see if the University Libraries' has electronic access to the title of that journal.  Some journal articles are full-text and the full article can be retrieved directly when searching in the database. 

Retrieving other full-text articles require that you browse the e-journal list by clicking on the Article Linker symbol,   or searching directly in the e-journal list.  

Browsing the e-journal title list you can search by:

• Title begins with
• Title equals
• Title contains all words
• ISSN/ISBN number

Browsing e-journals can also be conducted by subject:

Health & Biological Sciences

Sub category : Nursing

Everything

The "Everything" search engine, powered by the Summon Discovery Service, provides a Google-like experience, allowing researchers to use one search box to discover reliable library content.

What’s in Everything?

Everything searches most:

• Journal articles (scholarly and peer-reviewed)
• Newspaper, magazine, newsletter articles
• Conference proceedings
• E-Books
• Databases

What’s not in Everything?

While it includes content from most of the UB Libraries databases, it does not include everything the UB Libraries subscribe to. There are some resources that publishers/vendors do not allow to be indexed in Summon and therefore the resources are only available from our E-Journals tab.

Specialized and comprehensive searches on a topic should be done using our subject-specific databases. 

When should I use Everything?

Everything is a great starting point when you’re just beginning your research, or when you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for or where to start.