News & Updates
Let's Talk About E-Books - Part Two
By Lynn Mayo
November 19, 2014
It might seem as though the library began purchasing electronic books only just recently, when, in reality, it’s been acquiring digital forms of books since the 1990s.
Our collecting began by supporting some of the first scholarly digital text initiatives like the University of Chicago’s ARTFL (a collection of nearly 3,000 classic works of French literature and historical texts) and Brown University’s Women Writers Project (nearly 350 early texts written by women from the 16th through 19th centuries). Since then, we’ve been actively purchasing and subscribing to important historical digital text collections and electronic versions of classic reference works such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the Grove art and music encyclopedias. More recently we’ve expanded the collection to include current scholarly books along with recently published books written and edited by Hamilton faculty.
While the landscape of publishing continues to change and books take on new forms, our overarching goal in collecting has been to build a collection that supports the changing needs of Hamilton readers and researchers. By incorporating digital texts into the collection, the library is able to provide access to hundreds of thousands of works that most small college libraries would never be able to own, or house, in a print format. These digital works provide Hamilton students with new opportunities to engage with rare and unique texts along with recently published scholarship, with just the click of a mouse.
Highlights of Hamilton’s E-Book Collection
Historical E-Books
- America’s Historical Imprints
Contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America from 1639-1819. Includes advertisements, almanacs, bibles, broadsides, catalogs, cookbooks, maps, novels, operas, pamphlets, plays, poems, primers, sermons, songs, speeches, textbooks, tracts, travelogues, treaties and more.
- Early English Books Online
Over 125,000 volumes of early works printed in English or in England between 1473 and 1700. A treasure trove for scholars concerned with any almost aspect of English history and culture. The collection includes works by major authors such as Shakespeare, Bacon, Newton and Galileo and comprises a wide array of historical documents -- from Bibles, prayer books, royal statutes, proclamations, and military, religious and other public documents -- to almanacs, musical exercises, calendars, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980
The reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Provides students and scholars with a vast collection to study the cultural, economic, ethnic, governmental, military, political and scientific history of the United States. Includes 70,000+ maps.
Reference Books
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Oxford Reference Online
- Cambridge Histories Online
- AccessScience
- Oxford Art Online (Grove Art)
- Oxford Music Online (Grove Music)
- more online reference works...
Digital Text Projects
Current Scholarly E-Books
- EBSCO’s e-Book Academic Collection
- ebrary Academic Complete
- EBL ConnectNY collection
- Springer eBook collection
- ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) Humanities e-Books
Recent Acquisitions
- National Geographic Virtual Library
find books and maps using the advanced search
- E-Books by Hamilton College Faculty
works published since 2010 are listed in the library catalog
Tell Us What You Think
Send your e-book questions and comments to askref@hamilton.edu.
Next Month in 'Let’s Talk About E-Books'
In the final installment of our series we’ll look at some of the ways Hamilton students and faculty are using e-books in their research and teaching.
