McMaster LibGuides: How Do I Find Books?: Searching the Library Catalogue

Finding E-Books

You can find e-books using the Library Catalogue or any of the following e-book databases:

Springer eBook Collection Includes all books published by Springer, 2005-2009, and select book series back to 1997
Books@Ovid Database contains full text access to selected biomedical and nursing books.
Scholars Portal Books Full-text for over 160,000 e-books from commercial publishers, including titles from Springer, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, and the Gibson Canadian publishers collection. Also includes approximately 400,000 e-books that are open access or public domain titles.
Gale Virtual Reference Library More than 200 encyclopedias, almanacs and selected industry-standard reference series from Thomson Gale and its imprints are now available.

Why Use Books?

Books are a great resource to use when searching for general information on a topic. They are useful for understanding a topic in its context and provide summaries of existing research as well as offer a historical perspective.

Books are best found using the Search feature in our Library Catalogue.

Library Catalogues

A Library Catalogue...

is an index to the contents of a library or group of libraries
allows you to locate material by author, title, subject, etc.
can include: books; journal, magazine & newspaper titles (not articles); government publications; archives; maps; databases; games; videos; other materials
gives details (e.g., publisher, date of publication, etc.) required for bibliographies and endnotes
may give the location, call number and status (e.g., checked out) of an item
that is available online may be called an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
that combines the contents of several library catalogues may be called a union catalogue
can typically be searched by anyone, anywhere in the world, with no restrictions