The Campus Library has a large collection of E-Books, available from various publishers and provided through several gateways for the Indiana University East Community. E-Books offer information at a pace established by the online world. Chapters, passages and brief quotations can be found among the digital words of the E-Book--more efficiently and at the pace of time expected by the online world. At this time the IU East community has the opportunity to view these resources-online using various platforms. Also, the Campus Library e-books do not circulate and are not downloadable to an E-Book reader.
The E-Book collections include fiction and non-fiction and provide a cost conscious value to libraries. As a user of print books in my long academic career, I recognize the value of finding an elusive example for a research paper quickly without having to read through chapters and whole books. In my print research period I would delve into indexes of books, find the appropriate chapter or pages and review the printed information, determining importance and context. In the world of online research, E-book searches discover the elusive thoughts and facts not indexed or included in a table of contents.
The evaluation of the ideas and facts in the E-Book or print Book remains important to research. The reader or user of information must decide the quality, value, validity and timeliness of the information. The evaluation should also assess the relationship and relevance of the information to the research being conducted.
