E-Textbooks for Engineering Courses

Abstract

Considering the cost of textbooks, our library makes copies of textbooks available for all engineering courses. Although most of these books are in print format, we provide access to e-textbooks when they are available for institutional access. We then ask faculty to announce to students that they have the option of using the e-textbooks. For the Fall 2011 term, e-textbooks were available to students via one of these platforms: ebrary, MyiLibrary, NetLibrary, Knovel, Safari Tech Books Online, SpringerLink, IEEE Xplore, Wiley Online Library, and ScienceDirect. We sent a survey to engineering students that asked them about: preferences and choices for textbooks in print or e-book format, awareness of the availability of e-textbooks through the library, and ease of use of the e-textbooks.