What is an e-book?

According to Wikipedia: An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices.^[1] Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as an electronic version of a printed book,^[2] but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicatedhardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books.

Formats

Ebooks come in a variety of formats. The most popular are PDF (Portable Document Format); EPUB, an open format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum; MOBI, developed for PDAs and mobile devices; and AZW, Amazon's format.

Reading

You can read an ebook while online or download it to your computer or portable device. You may need special software, such as Adobe Digital Editions, to read it on your computer or portable device. Mostreaders are compatible with Adobe Digital Editions.

eBook Readers

There are a number of eBook readers available. The most popular are the Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook, Borders' Kobo, and the Sony eReader. Wikipedia has a comparison of the different readers.

Where to find books

eBooks and eAudiobooks

Download library books through Overdrive to either your computer, smart phone, or directly to your Kindle or Nook.

Getting started witih Overdrive From Overdrive.
Don't forget to check out the new app, Libby by Overdrive.

Guide to using a Kindle With Overdrive

Working with Nooks

LY5623 RBd Audio Mag Banner

Online Magazines and eAudiobooks

Read your favorite magazines online or listen

to audiobooks through rbDigtial

Need some help getting started? Check out the rbDigital help resource.

eBook Resources

Baen Books-Science Fiction and Fantasy
20 Best places to download e-books
100 Useful links for ebook lovers
Search for e-books From Librarian chick. Search for free audio, text, and e-books.
AddAll Ebook Meta search 30+ ebook sites with one click
African American Women Writers of the 19th Century an online collection of 52 full-text works from the New York Public Library.
Alex Catalog of Electronic Texts
ClassicBookshelf.com e-texts with a difference...this site lets the reader change the display.
Classic Reader Over 600 books and 900 short stories presented in unabridged versions that one can can read, search, and annotate. (LII)
Digital Book Index A database of over 60,000 fiction and nonfiction e-books from over 1,800 publishers.
Domesday Book This site has been set up to enable visitors to find out the history of the Domesday Book and to give an insight into life at the time of its compilation [the eleventh century]. This site does not contain all the information contained in the original text, however does include a list of every settlement existing in 1086.
EBSCO ebook Collection on MeL You can now download ebooks from MeL: you must set up a Personal User authentication to activate an account. To set up an account go to:
mel.org
MeL Databases
Click on 'eBooks' to access the EBSCOHost eBook Collection.
Click on 'Sign In' on the top tool bar.
Click on 'Create a new Account'. Use the above link to access your account.
E-library of literature a modest collection of e-texts.
Fogged Clarity An online art review magazine, includes fiction, poetry, and music reviews.
Electronic Literature Directory comprehensive directory of work in the field of electronic literature
Wright American Fiction (1851-1875) a collection of American fiction that attempts to include every novel published in the United States from 1851 to 1875. From Indiana University (SR)
E-Book Archive Find essays, manuscripts, and tons of e-books here
On line Texts from the Internet Public Library.
Open Library One webpage for every book ever published
Electronic Text Collections in Western European Literature from the Library of the University of Virginia. (LII)
Author's House Books that are in the public domain.
Free-eBooks.net Free membership.
Google Books A searchable archive of the full texts of books scanned from publishers and libraries. The site includes a discussion of what portions of materials are available for books that may still be under copyright protection: you'll only see snippets of text directly around your search term. This snippet view is designed to help users ... make a decision about whether to go find a physical copy of the book.(LII)
Collection of Science Fiction/alternate history books online
The Harvard Classics and Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, 1909-1917 Bartleby.com has placed the entire set online for the general public
Making of America Collection This site has a large collection of late-nineteenth-century American books and journals that can be read online.
Manybooks.net The staff members at Manybooks.net have adapted the e-texts created by the Project Gutenberg DVD and placed them online in a host of formats, including pdf, eReader, and as Palm document files. Visitors can begin by browsing by author, title, category, orlanguage.
On-Line Books Page The site only indexes books (all located at other sites) that are full text, free, and not copyrighted.
Online Literary Criticism Collection
Open Library aims to reproduce the experience of reading a book online. All the books at this site are in the public domain.
Page by Page public domain books online.
Project Gutenberg Full text of many books that are no longer copyrighted.
Planet PDF: Free PDF eBooks
Read Print.com A warm welcome to Read Print, your free online library. Our website offers thousands of free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast. To find the book you desire to read, start by looking through the author index.
Wiki Books online books that anyone can edit.