Find items in UIC Library collections, including books, articles, databases and more.
Find items on the UIC Library website, including research guides, help articles, events and website pages.
This guide features the UIC Library's subscription platforms for electronic books. Users also have the option of exploring free sources such as those listed in the tabs above (Project Gutenberg, HathiTrust Digital Library).
To find e-books across all of these platforms, use the main library search box. Watch a 2023 video on finding e-books.
E-Book Availability
Because UIC gets e-books from so many sources, some limits apply:
* Some e-books are rented, not owned, and might be removed without notice by the vendor.
* Some e-books are limited to one reader at a time.
Most UIC Library E-books are available through ProQuest E-book Central. For more information on using this platform, see this page.
| Platform |
|
Capabilities | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Description | How much can you download? | How many pages can you print? | Can you download to mobile device? |
| Access databases contains textbooks, news, and additional health sciences-related resources. Create a personal account to utilize Custom Curriculum, save and download images Users may currently print one page at a time for the first 25% of the book. | Users can download book chapters and sections; but are not able to download an entire book at once. | There is no limit imposed by Access platforms of the number of pages a user can print. |
Mobile-optimized content for all subjects is available to view and download with the Access app. |
|
| ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection | ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection (ACLS HEB) The collection presents thousands of foundational books in the humanities and social sciences from hundreds of publishers |
A chapter may be downloaded at at time. Note: If you are an instructor and want to photocopy a chapter for your course, you must apply directly to the original publisher or copyright holder for permission. |
A chapter may be printed at a time. |
ACLS Humanities Ebook allows downloads on any device to any user that is a member of a subscribing institution. Most of the collection is scanned print editions presented as image PDFS. Only more recent titles are available in mobile-friendly digital formats. |
| Books@Ovid | Platform for ebooks, journals, and databases in clinical medicine, nursing, allied health sciences, and psychology | You can download books to read by chapter by downloading individual PDFS. | You can print by chapter within reasonable limits. | They do not have an app, but you can use any browser to access the Ovid site to access books. |
| Clinical Key | ClinicalKey has evidenced based point-of-care resources that include electronic books medical journals, and more. | For a majority of the book titles, you should be able to download PDFs of chapters. For books that will not allow you to download PDFs, you can view them in full text in Clinical Key HTML book reader, complete with all chapters, images, tables, and references. | As an authorized user, you may download, print, and store a reasonable portion of individual book chapters from ClinicalKey for your exclusive use. However, systematic download of entire books, substantial portions of a single book, or a high volume of book PDFs within a given timeframe is prohibited. |
Clinical Key has an app than you can download to your mobile device (iOS and Android) With the app, you are able to save content and access full-text books, full-text journals, guidelines, multimedia, and more. |
| Credo | Covering a multitude of subjects, credo provides access to thousands of articles from reference sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. | Electronically bookmark, download and save individual entries included in the Works - materials can only be viewed online, other than those exported on an entry-by-entry basis. An entry depends on the publisher and the book. It can be a short article or a full chapter. |
Print out single copies of individual entries found in the Works for purposes of private study or research | There is no app for Credo Reference, but content can be accessed through mobile devices by subscribers, depending on the authentication methods in place for the subscribing institution’s account. |
| EBSCOhost | EBSCOhost databases cover a wide range of subjects that include journals, peer-reviewed titles, and other types of academic literature |
When you find an eBook of interest in EBSCO Discovery Service or EBSCOhost, you have the option of downloading eBook chapters or a custom range of pages to your computer or device as PDFs. Notes: • Some titles may not allow for printing due to individual publisher-specified limits. • The number of pages may vary depending on individual publisher-specified limits. • If you have reached your printing limit, you will be informed that you have zero pages remaining to print. |
If you are printing an EBSCO eBook, up to 100 pages of a title can be printed per user in PDF format. In addition, you can select to save the pages as a PDF file instead of printing them. |
The EBSCO Mobile app provides library users with an easy way to download and read e-books from their library’s EBSCO eBooks collections. In addition, the app enables you to download e-books and read them within the app without needing an Adobe ID or the Adobe Digital Editions app. |
| EEBO - Early English Books Online | EEBO contains over 146,000 titles that cover a diverse range of subjects. | For each book, there is a limit on the number of pages that can be copied, printed, or page/chapter-downloaded per user. For most books, these limits reset after 24 hours. For Course Reserve titles, the limits do not reset. . | the number of pages that can be printed or page/chapter-downloaded= 40% of a book’s total pages. The tally of prints and page/chapter-downloads performed in a book resets every 24 hours. Both “print to PDF” and “chapter download” deduct against the same total. | Although you are unable to download a PDF of an EEBO ebook to a mobile device, you can read the book on either a mobile device (iOS or Android) from the PQ Mobile site. For a mobile device, the only thing you can download from an eBook is the bibliographic information of the eBook. |
| Gale EBooks | Gale eBooks offers a broad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business, and other subjects. | There is no specific limit to the number of chapters/entries you can download from Gale. However, you may be limited to many downloads you can do in a day. | For printing, you can only print a chapter at a time. |
The free Access My Library® app may be used to access eBooks on mobile devices. This app may be downloaded from the App Store or on Google Play. If you don't have the app, you can still read, print, and download from mobile browsers. |
| IEEE Xplore | IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Explore has books, journals, conference proceedings, and all current IEEE standards. The vendor also includes IET journals and proceedings. | This information varies by publisher. Most Publishers will allow you to download up to 10 PDFS at a time. The publishers that are exception from this are Now, Princeton, and Manning. | Printing goes by chapter. | The IEEE site is mobile-friendly. Users download mainly on a chapter-by-chapter basis. |
| JSTOR | Collections of back issues of scholarly journals in the following disciplines: art and science, business, ecology and botany, and general science. | With the JSTOR subscription, you can print by chapter. For users without a JSTOR subscription, they have Open Access collection. | Whole chapters at a time | You can access and download JSTOR from any mobile device (smartphone and tablet), allowing content to be downloaded from the mobile interface. |
| Open Knowledge Repository |
Platform for open access content that covers a multitude of topics and regions around the world. Some examples of open-access content available include books, economic journal articles and manuscripts. |
Content can be downloaded in whole or in part. | Subscribers may print all content in eLibrary in whole or in part. |
OKR has a mobile friendly browser that allows you to download content (full books or part) onto your phone. |
| Oxford Reference Online | Oxford Reference Online is a digital reference shelf of topical encyclopedias, handbooks, thesauruses, and dictionaries emphasizing Literature and Western Civilization. | Up Authorized Users can download chapter PDFs from the website | Up to a single chapter or 5% of a single chapter from each Oxford title (whichever is greater) |
OUP has made sure that content can be accessed with common mobile services, such as a phone and/or tablet. Content can be seen in a printer friendly format and can be converted to PDF for reading online. Authorized users can do the following things:
|
| Proquest Ebook Central | Ebook Central makes it easy to manage discovery, selection, acquisition, administration, and reporting all in one place – and to give students, faculty, and researchers seamless and immediate access to the ebooks they need. | 40% of a book's total pages can be downloaded. | The default printing allowance is 40% of each ebook, and the copying allowance is 20%. Similar restrictions apply when you read ebooks offline. When printing a chapter or range of pages, a deduction is made from this allowance. | Some publishers have made it possible their books to be compatible with online readers. It is recommended that you use Adobe Digital Editions on iOS and Android. However, you can still use the online reader without the app. |
| R2 Digital Library | Provides online and fully searchable health sciences reference works. | The R2 Digital Library does not allow direct download of eBooks | Users are able to print or email 20% (65 pages at most) of abook for printing/emailing. | There is no app, but a user can gain access from any device with the website. |
| Safari Books Online (O'Reilly Safari Books and Videos) |
Online access to 40,000+ technical books, videos, interactive tutorials, case studies, learning paths, and audiobooks. Includes captions and transcripts. Note: At the O'Reilly welcome page, go to select your institution and at the drop down menu, select NOT LISTED? CLICK. Enter your email address.
If you already have an account with O'Reilly, you can go to ALREADY A USER? CLICK HERE. This will take you to a page where you have to login with your username and password. |
download: There is no option to download pdfs to your laptop, desktop, or non-listed devices | print: 1) Most pages can be printed using your browser’s print function (control + P). 2) You can increase the print size of text and images by pulling up Print Preview, unclicking "Shrink to fit" and increasing the zoom to 150%. 3) If the font is too small, you can adjust the font size. The control is in the view menu on the upper right | On O'Reilly, all downloads are done through the O'Reilly app for iOS and Android. With the app, you can download for offline viewing as many books and videos as your mobile device can hold. You can download the app from here - https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/apps.html |
| Sage Knowledge | Sage Knowledge has academic books specializing in social sciences, media, and education. they also have press books that explore political and international relationships. | You can download 1 chapter per book per semester for ePUB3 format titles and/or 5 pages for titles in PDF format | You can print 1 chapter per book per semester for ePUB3 format titles and/or 5 pages for titles in PDF format | You can download and read Sage e-books on a mobile device using the Vital Source Bookshelf. |
| ScienceDirect |
Alternate Name(s) Science Direct A web database for research that contains abstracts, tables of contents, and full text of articles in the physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. |
Whole book (one chapter at a time); full articles | Whole chapters/articles at a time | iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices |
| SpringerLink | Platform for journals and e-books in scientific, technical, and medical fields, published by Springer-Verlag from 1997 to present. Note: UIC subscribes to only some of the titles in this database. To display only titles we have access to, uncheck the Include-Preview content box. | Full book PDF downloads are not available for eBook titles comprised of over 100 chapters. | Whole chapters at a time; also can order paperback versions for $24.95 | Both PDF and EPUB formats can be used and read on various digital devices, including mobile phones. |
| Wiley |
Platform for searching across all Wiley journals, online books from 2005-2011, and Current Protocols laboratory manuals. Wiley covers a diverse range of topics. |
Books cannot be downloaded and can only be accessed through Wiley Reader. | Wiley Reader allows 10 pages for every print at a time. |
Wiley Reader currently supports downloads to the mobile apps that are available for Android and Apple iOS. |