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IUPUI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OFFERS BOOKS ONLINE

INDIANAPOLIS - Without ever stepping foot into a library, students, faculty and staff at IUPUI can now access 35,000 books by authors ranging from Plato to Emily Bronte to Stephen Ambrose.

Through netLibrary, a service offered through the IUPUI University Library, users may read and "check out" electronic books (eBooks) online, a trend that is growing in libraries across the country, according to David Lewis, dean of the IUPUI University Library

While it may not be the same as holding a book in your lap, electronic books do offer many conveniences that physical books do not. A dictionary located right next to the text on the page allows users to look up unfamiliar words as they read. The search function allows users to search the books' entire text, to locate a particular word, phrase or quote or to find books where the search criteria is not located in the title, but within the book's text.

Lewis finds that the netLibrary arrangement specifically meets the needs of an urban campus like IUPUI. "Electronic books are particularly appropriate for a student base like ours, most of whom are not living on campus and can't walk to the library in five minutes," he said. "If you are unable to come to the library because the trip is too long, or because the library is not open, netLibrary is much more convenient."

Through an arrangement funded by the Indianapolis Foundation Library Partners with netLibrary, the leading provider of eBooks and Internet-based content management services, libraries throughout Marion County, including IUPUI University Library, have access to this system. IUPUI students, faculty and staff simply need to log on to www.netlibrary.com through an IUPUI Internet connection and those in the community with Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library cards may log on through www.ilibrary.org.

While Lewis doesn't foresee readers sitting by the pool holding a computer in their lap to read a book, he does think that eBooks could become a primary resource for those conducting research and a complement to the library's existing physical resources.

"I think we've already seen with online journals and reference materials that there are lots of things that you don't have to come to the library for," he said. "It's available anytime anywhere and it's much better than having to come into the library, make a photocopy and then walk home with it."

University Library also offers a link on its website to more than 60 different sites that offer free access to eBooks. The Library also offers access to more than 1100 journals online.

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