Electronic Books for Life Sciences  Tags: biology life_sciences electronic_books electronic_resources  

Many of our electronic resources, such as e-books, are available to UIUC students, faculty, and staff when using a computer with a non-campus IP address and require netid / login to access.  Just link to them from the Biology  Library or University Library Web sites and you will be prompted for your netid / login.

For help just

There are a growing number of electronic books (e-books) available to UIUC Library patrons.  Many of these electronic books are part of packages or individual subscriptions that the University Library subscribes to, and require netid login/password when using them on a non-UIUC Campus computer.  Some electronic books are freely available.  Management of electronic books is still a work in progress and locating titles may require a search in more than one place. Many of the individual e-book titles are findable via the Online Library Catalog or the Online Research Resources (ORR) database.  Some titles can only be reached through a link to the package itself. In this guide when this is the case a link from the title to the package is given.  Once there the individual title can be located.

In the days when collections were entirely physical, the library catalog was the central location to locate what titles the University Library owned or subscribed to.  Theoretically, this is the case with electronic titles.  Every attempt is made to provide a record for electronic book titles or a link to the electronic version from its print title counterpart record in the Online Library Catalog (OLC).  But with electronic resources for literature indexes, journals, books numbering in the tens of thousands from many different publishers and vendors, a new database was created to organize these resources -- the Online Research Resources (ORR) database.  The ORR provides access to most electronic information resources (e-journals, reference e-books (NOT non-reference e-books), electronic indexes and abstracts) the Library has available.  Many, but not all, of the electronic reference books that the University Library subscribes to may be accessed in the ORR.  To browse titles in the ORR, click on the "Reference Tools" tab; then click on "Biological Sciences" subject area.  All electronic reference books that have ORR records will be listed with brief details; click the "I" for more detailed information about the title.  There are several subject areas and each can be checked for electronic reference books in the related subject areas.  You may also search for a specific title using the "Reference Tools" tab.  Click on the "Help" tab for more information about the ORR and how to search it.  For the most part, non-reference books may be located via the OLC, directly through e-book collections (see the General and Collections sections below for some examples), and/or via various Library guide and e-book lists.

Electronic book access caveats: 

• Occasionally the ORR record for the title does not get all the appropriate subjects assigned to the record, so the title does not show up in that subject's list when limiting your ORR search to a subject area.  (This can be remedied by letting us know via the "Report an access problem ...." link via the "I" page for that record ! )  But if there, the title will show up if you search for it using the "ALL" tab.  

• Not all titles have a corresponding OLC record - theoretically should, but doesn't, so if you don't find in the OLC, check out the ORR, and vica versa.  With the burgeoning growth of electronic titles, the complexities create challenges that are being worked on in this regard.

• The University Library subscribes to several products that contain book titles, and there are a number of books that can be accessed through links to these packages or products but not individually - yet.  They will require you to go into the product and browse or search.  Wish it were easier, but we are not totally there yet.  

• There are many excellent electronic books titles available freely over the Web.  Some of these we have links to from the ORR, and some are linked to from Library guides (See Library Life Sciences Electronic Reference Book List)

• Librarians are more than happy to assist with any quests or questions, you have - so don't hesitate to  Ask A Librarian for assistance !