The Naval War College subscribes to four collections that provide electronic books (eBooks) to the college community. These four eBook resources require a bit of adjustment in terms of how they are used. The four eBook databases, eBrary, EBSCOhost, OECD and ACLS Humanities are all described in depth in the boxes below.
What is a platform and why does it make working with eBooks seem so difficult?
Each of the four NWC library collections that contain eBooks allow the user to search titles and content but have variations in how the information is searched, printed and stored because they are built on different platforms. A platform is simply an interface upon which any database is structured. Now that you understand this, don't be intimidated by the world of electronic books. You may find that you use the content of one database more regularly than the others, and therefore become more comfortable with its platform.
Reader's tip: To expand your eBook reading experience, talk to your local public library staff and ask them what type of reading device is best for checking out books from their eBook collections. They will be able to teach you how to use their databases and platforms.
OECD iLibrary
The OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In this unique forum, the governments of 34 democracies with market economies work together, as well as with more than 70 non-member economies to promote economic growth, prosperity, and sustainable development.
Look Inside (READ online icon
):
The “look inside” option is offered on many of the OECD iLibrary eBooks and enables you to read online the complete text of a publication, including the Table of Contents. The eBooks can be read online wherever there is an internet connection - desktop computer, tablets or smart phones. They are also shareable can be embedded.
ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection
This comprehensive electronic library consists of scholarly and peer reviewed books in the humanities. This collection of seminal works represents the best of the humanities from the disciplines of law, medicine, anthropology, history and philosophy from the 1880s to the present. These titles are sought out by scholars and students because they are often cited in research. Search ACLS when looking for any major humanities title that NWC Library does not have in its print collections.
Printing in ACLS Humanities eBook Collection:
You can print one page at a time when viewing the e-book in image or text mode. Print from your web browser as you would any other webpage.
Downloading from ACLS Humanities eBook Collection:
If you see the 
icon, it is possible to download 10 pages of the e-book in PDF at a time. While viewing any page in the e-book, look for the 
icon at the top right of the page. From the drop-down menu, select PDF. This will display the current page plus the subsequent pages in PDF within the browser. You can then print the file as you would any other PDF.
You can e-mail or transfer PDFs to Amazon Kindle and other devices. Download and install the free software program Adobe Digital Editions to transfer the PDF to other e-readers or mobile devices.
Click on ACLS Humanities Ebooks (or, to find the collection from the Library's homepage, click on "Library Databases", and then "E" for all eBook databases, then choose the ACLS Humanities collection). Once you are in the collection, click on search. You will get a search form:
That allows you to perform a basic search. Use pulldown menus to search in the fulltext or by field, or search in the entire collection of ACLS Humanities E-books or a special collection (i.e. Cambridge Film Classics, John Harvard Library). Click on More Tips if you want to get the most out of your search.
Results display in simple format:
Click on the Table of Contents link to navigate chapter by chapter.
Free eBooks to view online!