The NetLibrary database contains REAL BOOKS. The books are, primarily, current academic books. They provide the exact same text as the printed version of the books.

• Vital information
• Creating an account
• Linking from the Library catalog
• Viewing/checking out
• Closing an item (checking it back in)
• Searching within a book
• Saving
• Printing
• The Reference Center
• Citing your findings
• More information about these books

Vital information: When searching from the Basic Search page, the best search options (from the drop-down menu to the left) are Keyword, Subject, Author, or Title…NOT Full-Text. All the books have the complete text available. In this case, what they mean by Full-Text is, "Do you want the databases to search every word of 50,000 books for these terms?" That is usually not the best way to go. A Keyword search matches the words you enter with the Author, Title, and Subject of a book and is a good way to go. The Advanced Search page offers other ways to search as well.

Creating an account: NetLibrary encourages you to create a personalized/individual account. Once you have logged into the NetLibrary database (from the TROY page), simply look for the link labeled "Create a free account" at the upper-right. Creating an individual account is not required, but it can be useful. The benefits of creating an account include the ability to

• View books for 4 hours at a time, essentially "Checking them out." Without an individual account, books may be viewed for 15 minutes at a time.
• Save a list of favorite books
• Store electronic notes within individual books
• Link from the Library's catalog straight to a book in NetLibrary (for a detailed explanation, see "Linking from the Library catalog," below)

To clarify: Signing into your individual account within NetLibrary is a separate action from logging into NetLibrary from the databases page. Using your individual account works like this:

• First: Login to NetLibrary from the TROY databases page. That allows you to search the database and to view books for 15 minutes at a time.
• Second: After you have logged into the database itself, you can click on the "Log In" link (upper-left of the screen) to log in to your individual account.

Linking from the Library catalog: The primary method for accessing NetLibrary is through the Library's databases. However, you may also identify books in NetLibrary by using the Library catalog. The catalog lists the traditional (print) books within the Troy Library System, but it also lists books within two eBook databases, NetLibrary and Ebook Library. Books that are noted in the catalog as “Electronic Books” are from one of these two databases. The catalog provides links from its listings to NetLibrary. These links are located at the bottom of the long citation that appears when you click “View” to the left of each title. However, to enter NetLibrary in this manner (rather than via the databases page), you will be required to log in using your individual account by clicking the Log In button at the top left of the page, as described above.

Viewing/checking out: From the results list (the list of items found during a search), you may select "View this eBook." If you have logged into NetLibrary using your individual account (see "Creating an account," above), you will be allowed to view (check out) a book for 4 hours at a time. If you have not used your individual account, you may view books 15 minutes at a time. After 15 minutes, the book will, essentially, put itself back on the shelf so that others may use it.

Closing an item (checking it back in): When you have finished viewing an item, clicking the "Close item" link (on the left-hand side) will put it back on the shelf. It is good etiquette to close items when you have finished--it makes them available to other users. If you do not, these books will be inaccessible until the checkout time has expired. If you wish to access the book again, you can't, until a lengthy time has elapsed.

Searching within a book: When you are viewing a book, the "Search this eContent" box at the lower left will let you search for words you want to find in the text within the book, i.e., you can ask it to tell you on what pages you can find terms of interest to you.

Saving: Yes, you can save individual pages from books, but not entire books or chapters. Because of copyright restrictions, you cannot save every page . . . the database will let you know when you have reached the limit.

Printing: Yes, you can print individual pages from books, but not entire books or chapters. Because of copyright restrictions, you cannot print every page . . . the database will let you know when you have reached the limit.

The Reference Center: Linked on the right side of the NetLibrary home page, this feature allows you to search and browse reference resources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, thesauri, and more. Not just plain-old dictionaries, but reference books for art, biology, chemistry, computer science, history, literature, and most other disciplines.

Citing (doing references and citations in your research paper): See Citing the World Wide Web in Style, style guides in APA, MLA, and Turabian Formats. Linked from the Information and Help area of this site.

More information about these books:

These books are NOT: They are not unpublished works--they are actually the electronic versions of traditional, printed books. They are not special or edited versions of "real books;" they ARE the real books.

These books ARE: They are Real Books! They are the electronic versions of current, traditional books. They are the same as the printed materials you find in libraries and book stores. The books in NetLibrary are published in print format as well, but making them available online allows TROY students worldwide to access the text immediately, regardless of their geographic location. These are real books from established publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Greenwood, Harvard Business School, Houghton Mifflin, Irwin, John Wiley & Sons, Macmillan, Oryx, Sage, South-Western, and St. Martin's.

Users should be aware that a small percentage of the titles in this database (fewer than 10%) are books that are in the public domain. Most of these books are older (usually published prior to 1925), e.g., the works of Shakespeare, Homer, Plato, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, etc. Although these books are openly available from online sources other than NetLibrary, it may be preferable to access them via this database for the following reasons:

• You can read, search, and make notes in them using the NetLibrary interface.
• You can provide citations to them that may be simpler, more uniform, and more reliable than citations to a Web site version of the book.