eBooks
Even if you can't get to a library, you can "check out" and read entire books from home - or any computer. eBooks (short for "electronic books") are digitally scanned books that you can view online. Each page appears exactly as it does in the printed book. The DCTC Library provides access to 8,453 eBooks through NetLibrary, a division of OCLC. NetLibrary eBooks are also listed in MnPALS, our online catalog, but the links to their full text on the NetLibrary web site will only work if you are on campus at DCTC.
You can access NetLibrary from the DCTC Library home page by clicking on the drop-down menu under Quick access to online resources and selecting NetLibrary eBooks. You can also access NetLibrary from the Library Catalogs page, under Electronic books. If you're accessing NetLibrary from off campus, you'll need to log in first; see our Get Started page if you've never done this before.
This is the NetLibrary Basic Search page. The default search type is "Full-Text," as seen in the drop-down menu. This is the broadest possible search; it will find every eBook containing at least one occurrence of each of the words you type in the search box. A keyword search is more focused. It searches only limited fields like author, title, and subject heading. If you're looking for a specific book and you know its title or author, you can select a title or author search. Otherwise, it's a good idea to start with a full-text or keyword search.
These are the results of a keyword search for "photography." This page shows our 12 results, sorted by relevance. For each eBook, you'll see basic information, such as title, author, publisher, and year of publication. We can find more information about this eBook by clicking on the Show Details link.
This is the eBook Details screen for the eBook The Complete Idiot's Guide to Photography. If we click on View this eBook, we can read the full text of the book. The book's subject headings are displayed as hyperlinks. By clicking on these, you will see a list of all the eBooks that have the same subject heading.
We get a screen like this when we click on the View this eBook link. On the left side of the screen, we see the Table of Contents, where we can click on any link to jump directly to that part of the book. On the right side of the screen, we see a scanned image of each of the book's pages, including the front and back covers. By clicking on the Previous and Next buttons at the top of the screen, we can go to the previous or next page in the book. By typing a number in the Page box, we can jump directly to that page.
