Guides: Ebooks @ Pitt: Major Ebook Collections and eReference

Major Ebook Collections at Pitt

All of our ebooks, including the ebooks in the major collections below and ebooks in other databases, are available for free to Pitt students, faculty, and staff 24/7 by searching the library's online catalog PittCat and limiting your results to online formats.

You will also find these collections listed under Databases by Title.

Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
These aggregated collections cover academic disciplines including business and economics, computers, technology and engineering, humanities, life and physical science, and social and behavioral sciences.
eBook Collection by EBSCO This link opens in a new window
The eBook Collection by EBSCO has over 300,000 unlimited user EBSCO eBooks, from 855 parent publishers and 3,303 imprints, across the following areas:

• Academic
• Business
• Community College
• Diversity & Ethnic Studies
• Education
• Engineering
• History
• Medical
• Nursing
• Public Library
• Psychology & Psychiatry
• Religion
• Spanish & Portuguese
• University Press
O'Reilly This link opens in a new window
Ebooks in computer science, information technology, and related fields including: Business Reference, Certification, Cisco, Creative Media, Database, Desktop Productivity, e-Business, Enterprise Computing, Java, Linux/Unix, Macintosh, .NET, Networking, Perl, Photoshop, Programming, Software Engineering, Web Administration, Web Authoring and Design, Web Development, Windows, and XML.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Pitt is a HathiTrust Partner Institution; you can log in with your Pitt username and password to get the most out of HathiTrust. For more information, review the HathiTrust Resource Guide
OverDrive @ PITT This link opens in a new window
Downloadable popular fiction and non-fiction e-books and audio books for your reading and listening pleasure.

The same content is also accessible on Libby.
SpringerLink This link opens in a new window
SpringerLink is an integrated full-text database for journals and books published by Springer
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
We currently subscribe to a small number of Elsevier reference works and book series through ScienceDirect. To access the list, use the Browse feature and limit to full-text and all books.
ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window
The ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection is an online repository of full-text, digital books. Extensive insight to field of history, women's studies, religion and performance arts.

Download Audio and Ebooks for Leisure Reading

University of Pittsburgh's source for popular and classic ebooks and audio books to download.

Create and Manage your own OverDrive@pitt account
Check out books for up to 21 days
A huge selection of titles
You can add it as an app (see mobile page)
Consists of EPUB, MP3, and WMA formats
Download the OverDrive Media Console directly to your mobile device to read/listen to books

Remember to look at the supported audio and ebook devices.

OverDrive @ PITT This link opens in a new window
Downloadable popular fiction and non-fiction e-books and audio books for your reading and listening pleasure.

The same content is also accessible on Libby.

Help!
If you are having trouble, you can check here for answers to some general questions

Free Ebooks on the Web

Google Books
Currently, Google Books has over 15 million searchable titles. Users are able to view some full text books depending on the publisher.
Open Library
Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 50,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device.
Bartleby.com
Provides free access to classic texts as well as contemporary reference works.
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies & music, as well as 150 billion archived web pages.

eReference

Sage Knowledge
Sage Knowledge is a database of 47 reference books published by SAGE covering the social sciences and education.

Search Tips:

Basic Searching

Enter your search terms into the search box.

Advanced Searching

Click on the Advanced Reference Search link beneath the search box.
Enter your search terms into the search box.
Narrow your search by selecting Full Text, Title, Abstract, Keyword, DOI, ISBN.
Add a search term if needed by selecting the + add search term button below the search box.
Limit your search results by Publisher and/or Authors by using the search bars below.

Gale Ebooks
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research including art, biography, business, education, general reference, history, law, medicine, multicultural studies, nation and world, religion, science, and social science.

Search Tips:

Basic Searching

Enter your search query into the find box
Limit your search to words in the document title, keywords, entire document or subject
Narrow your search results by document type, publication date or subject

Advanced Searching

Click on the advanced search tab
Enter your search query into the find box
Limit your search to words in the subject, author, edition, keyword, entire document, document title, ISBN etc
Limit your search results by publication title or date, documents with images, subject area or target audience

Credo Reference
Credo Reference is an online reference library that provides access to a selection of reference books from a total of 169. Credo Reference also includes cross-references to other full text titles containing related information.

Users can choose to search all reference works or the following specific subjects: Art, Bilinguals, Biography, Business, Conversions, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Food, Geography, Language, Law, Literature, Medicine, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Quotations, Religion, Science, Social sciences, and Technology.

Search Tips:

Basic Searching

1. Enter your search terms in the search for box.

Advanced Searching

Click the advanced search options
Enter your search terms
Limit your search results by subject headings (history, law, medicine...), publication dates (2008, 2009....), entries with the following features (entries with audio or images, articles or entries with maps)

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

Ebooks @ Pitt

Major Ebook Collections at Pitt

Download Audio and Ebooks for Leisure Reading

Free Ebooks on the Web

eReference