netLibrary

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Contents and Access

What does this database contain?
netLibrary offers libraries and organizations around the world a comprehensive collection of electronic books (e-books). The University of Texas at San Antonio Library's netLibrary collection features thousands of scholarly, reference, and professional e-books from leading university, academic and professional publishers. Books on all subjects are included in UTSA Library's netLibrary e-book collection.

E-books are electronic versions of printed books. You can browse netLibrary e-books for quick research and reference or check them out and read them at your leisure. Since e-books are online, you don't have to worry about returning them. E-books are automatically "returned" at the end of your check-out period.

Full text of books available online?
Yes--and full image, too. Not only do you receive full text online in a netLibrary e-book, but also full image--tables, charts, maps, photographs, drawings, etc., when available.

Language of books?
English predominantly.

What is the date coverage for the books in netLibrary?
Many current titles are available via netLibrary, including titles published this year. UTSA Library's netLibrary e-book collection also contains many books from the 1980s and 1990s, as well as "classic works" in the "publicly accessible eBook" collection, which netLibrary's has digitized and provides free to all users.

List of books included in this database?
No. You must search for an e-book to find an e-book. There is no A to Z list of e-books provided from the netLibrary site.

Where do I access this database?
You may search, UCAT, the UTSA Library's online catalog, to find netLibrary e-books. The online catalog is available at https://ucat.lib.utsa.edu.

netLibrary is also available on the UTSA Library's Find Databases page: http://lib.utsa.edu/Databases/.

You may also visit netLibrary's Internet address: http://www.netlibrary.com.

On-campus:
netLibrary e-books can be viewed online for free via any computer connected to the Internet at any of UTSA's three campuses (1604, Downtown, Institute of Texan Cultures).

Off-campus:
netLibrary e-books can also be viewed off-campus. From off-campus computers connected to the internet, the resource authenticates you as a member of the UTSA community. You must enter your user name (usually your last name) and a student identification number to access the resource off-campus.

Note: To use the e-book collection off-campus, you no longer need to establish a free netLibrary account on-campus before accessing e-books. Only when you want to check-out an e-book do you need to establish a free account with netLibrary.

Do I have to establish a free netLibrary account?
No. If you only wish to search and browse e-books, you will not need to create an account. If, however, you wish to check out e-books for an extended time, then you must establish an account with netLibrary.

How do I establish a free netLibrary account?
To create your account, follow these steps:

From the netLibrary homepage, use the "Create an account" link.
Enter your identifying information (user name, password, email address).
Select the "Submit" button.

How do I log into netLibrary?
Go to the netLibrary homepage, access an e-book via UCAT, or connect to netLibrary via the Library Resources page.

Enter your account username and password on the right side of the screen.
Select the red "Log In" button.
You now have access to all e-books available in the UTSA Library's netLibrary collection.

How do I search for an e-book?
See the "Searching" section below.

How do I browse an e-book?
You may browse an e-book without logging in. Browsing an e-book is the equivalent of taking a book off the shelf and looking through it. While you are actively using it, no other user will have access to it. If 15 minutes elapses without active use, the book is "put back on the shelf" and another user will have access.

To browse an e-book, follow these steps:

Search for an e-book.
Select the e-book title from your search results to display the "eBook Summary" page.
Select the "Browse this eBook online" link.
The e-book is displayed.
To learn how to use an e-book, select the "Help" tab at the top of your screen.

How do I check out an e-book via netLibrary?
Each time you wish to check out an e-book, you must first log into netLibrary with your username and password. To check out an e-book, follow these steps:

After having searched for an e-book, select the e-book title from your search results to display the e-book "Summary" page.
Select the "Check out and read online" link. Clicking on this option automatically checks out the title and places it on your "eBookshelf."
To access your eBookshelf, you must be logged in. You can either select the eBookshelf link on the right side of the screen or the button located on the navigation bar at the top of the home page.

Do I have to check-out an e-book?
No. You only need to check-out an e-book when you want to use the e-book for an extended period of time. Checking out an e-book gives you exclusive use of the e-book for the checkout period determined by the library. No one else can access the e-book once you have checked out the book. If you don't need to check out an e-book, you can simply "browse" it.

Do I have to download an e-book and use it offline?
No. You can browse or check out e-books on-campus from any computer connected to the Internet. You only need to download an e-book and use it offline if you are planning to "take the book with you," that is to say, you are planning to read the e-book on a computer not connected to the Internet, such as a laptop or portable computer.

If you want to download an e-book and read it offline, you will first need to download the free netLibrary eBook Reader. For more information about downloading e-books and reading them offline, select the "Downloading eBooks" link from the "Learn More About eBooks" section on the netLibrary homepage. Because you do not need to download an e-book to browse or check it out, software for the netLibrary eBook Reader is not found on any UTSA Library computer.

How do I return an e-book?
An e-book is automatically returned when the check-out period expires. You may also select the "Check in eBook" button to return an e-book before the check-out period expires. Remember that when you check out an e-book, only you have access to that book during the check-out period. Returning an e-book early allows others to use the book.

How long is the check-out period for an e-book?
E-book check-out periods vary. At present most e-books can be checked out from 2 hours to 24 hours.

Do I accrue fines for an overdue e-book?
No. In effect, there is no such thing as an overdue e-book via netLibrary. Since e-books are online, you donut have to worry about returning them. E-books are automatically "returned" at the end of your check-out period.

Searching

How do I search for an e-book?
Start your search in one of three places:
Keyword searching

From the netLibrary homepage, the "Keyword Search" box is located at the top right of your browser window on the main navigation bar.
A keyword search allows you to search for a word or phrase in the title, author, Library of Congress subject heading, publisher, and ISBN (International Standard Book Number) fields.
To perform a keyword search, enter the search term.
Note: To do a phrase search, submit your search in quotes – for example, "small business."
Select the "Go" button to display search results.
Keyword searching in netLibrary does not allow you to use complex Boolean operators (see below for details on Boolean searching). Multiple terms entered in a keyword search will be linked by the AND operator between each term.

Advanced searching

To perform a more advanced search, fill in any or all of the fields that appear on the netLibrary homepage including title, author, subject, keywords, full text, publisher, publication year, and ISBN.
Note: To do a phrase search, submit your search in quotes – for example, "small business."
Select the red "Search" button to display search results.

Command searching

To do command searching, from the netLibrary homepage, click on the "Search Tools" tab. Command searching lets you create a free-form search query to locate an e-book. Use this type of searching if you are familiar with Boolean operators (and, or, not, near) and with building search queries.
Use the following two-letter codes when building a command search:

ti: title fu: full text

au: author pu: publisher

su: subject da: date

ke: keywords is: ISBN
A sample Command Search query might look like this:
au:bly and ti:writers and da:1995-

This search query performs a search of items authored by Bly, with the word "writers" in the title, published in or after 1995.

How do I search for an author?
You may enter the name in any order, with or without punctuation, and capitalization is not necessary (example: Twain, Mark or mark twain or Twain Mark).

How do I search for a book title?
You may enter the exact title (example: A Tale of Two Cities) or any portion of the title in any order (example: Huckleberry adventures). It is not necessary to enter beginning articles in the title (the, a, an, etc.).

How do I search by keyword?
The keyword option searches for your terms in the title, author, Library of Congress subject heading, publisher and ISBN fields. You may enter single terms (example: programming) or multiple terms that may be found in the same or different fields (example: pride prejudice or midsummer Shakespeare).

How do I search the full text of an e-book?
The full text search option searches for your terms in every word of every e-book. Use this option to search for words that may appear in the text of a book but not in the title or other fields.

Do I have to use Library of Congress Subject Heads to do a subject search in netLibrary?
Yes. If you don't know the official subject heading or want to search terms by something other than subject heading, you may want to do a keyword search.

Can I use Boolean search operators to perform a search?
Yes. You can use eight Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, parenthesis [( )], double quotes [" "], single asterisk [*], and double asterisk [**]) in advanced searching and command searching.

AND returns results that include both terms (example: history AND european).
OR returns results that include either term (example: heart OR cardiac).
NOT returns results that include the first term and not the second term (example: nursing NOT home).
NEAR is limited to the Title and Full Text fields and returns results that include both terms in close proximity to each other (example: child NEAR read).
Parenthesis ( ) may be used to group queries. Spaces after the first and before the second parenthesis must be entered (example: ( baseball OR softball ) AND coaching).
Double quotes " " may be used to indicate phrases (example: "civil rights").
Single Asterisk * may be used for wildcarding (example: cook* searches for cook, cooks, cooking, cookery, cookbook, etc.).
Double Asterisk ** may be used to search for all forms of a word (example: drive** searches for drive, drove, driving, driven, etc.).

Can I use quotation marks around search terms to find exact terms?
Yes. Double quotes " " may be used to indicate phrases (example: "civil rights").

Can I use truncation or wildcards to search for similar terms, such as library and libraries?
Yes. A single asterisk * may be used for wildcarding (example: cook* searches for cook, cooks, cooking, cookery, cookbook, etc.). A double asterisk ** may be used to search for all forms of a word (example: drive** searches for drive, drove, driving, driven, etc.).

How can I get more help with searching?
Click on the red "Search Tools" button on the top of the netLibrary homepage. Then click on the "Search Tips" button for more assistance.

Printing, Downloading, E-mailing

How do I print?
When you use an e-book, you can print a limited number of pages one at a time. Simply use the "Print" button on your web browser to print pages from an e-book. Because of copyright restrictions, you will only be able to print a small number of pages from the book; you will not be able to print the entire book. Therefore, printing selected pages or sections of the e-book may serve you better for note-taking than for reading the entire work offline at your leisure.

Because the netLibrary website uses frames to display pages, be sure that you are printing the proper frame. You want to print the frame that contains the text of the page you are reading, rather than the frame containing the table of contents for the book or directions for searching or using e-books. To print the correct frame, simply use your mouse to click on the text of the page you want to print, then use your browser's print command to print the page.

Can I download or save an e-book?
Yes and no.

If you want to download an e-book and read it offline, you will first need to download the free netLibrary eBook Reader. (For more information about downloading e-books and reading them offline, select the "Downloading eBooks" link from the "Learn More About eBooks" section on the netLibrary homepage.) Because you do not need to download an e-book to browse or check it out, software for the netLibrary eBook Reader is not found on any UTSA Library computer. Thus, you cannot download an e-book to a Library computer or to a floppy disc in the A:drive of a Library computer.

E-books can take up a lot of memory on your computer. Because of their size, you probably cannot easily download an entire e-book on a floppy disc, although a zip disc could more easily hold the e-book's contents. Thus, you may not want to download an entire e-book. Remember that you can browse or check out e-books from any computer connected to the Internet. You only need to download an e-book and use it offline if you are planning to "take the book with you," that is to say, you are planning to read the e-book on a computer not connected to the Internet, such as a laptop or portable computer.

Can I e-mail an e-book to myself?
No. However, you can mail an e-book citation to yourself or someone else to make them aware of an e-book. To do so, search for the e-book you are interested in, then click on the "recommend this e-book to a friend" link to e-mail information about the book to yourself or someone else.

Help

Where do I go for more help?
Click "Help" at the top of each page for more detailed instructions. Feel free to ask at the Reference Desk or contact us for more assistance: (210) 458-4573 or 2446.

netLibrary

Contents and Access

Searching

Printing, Downloading, E-mailing

Help

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