How do I find ebooks?

Because the Library provides access to ebooks from a variety of vendors and publishers, downloading methods and policies vary. 

This page lists guidelines on downloading from the Library's major ebook collections. For more information, contact the Ask a Librarian service.

Ebooks may be read online without downloading. Downloading is necessary only for offline use.

Within the EBSCO eBook Collection, downloading policies will vary from book to book. You may be able to:

• Download an entire ebook to read offline in Adobe Digital Editions software for up to 14 days; or

• Download a chapter/section or selected pages of an ebook in PDF format (with no expiration date).
  The number of pages you can save varies and is determined by the publisher.

To download a portion of an EBSCO ebook in PDF, use the Save Pages button in the EBSCO eBooks tools menu. The number of pages available to save can vary and is determined by the publisher.

Then, select from the available options, which will appear at the top of the page. You may be able to save the current page, current section, or a specified page range:

You will be prevented from downloading additional pages once the download limit is reached:

Many EBSCO ebooks can be checked out for 14 days and read offline. This process requires a  My EBSCOHost account and Adobe Digital Editions software. 

Create a My EBSCOHost account by clicking on the Sign In link at the top of the page and follow the directions

Log in to your EBSCOhost account  and click the "Download (Offline)" button:  

Not all ebooks displaying this link will be available for download. If an ebook cannot be downloaded, the following message will display:

Complete instructions for checking out EBSCO ebooks are available in the EBSCO Knowledge Base.

The Library subscribes to two different collections of ProQuest Ebook Central (formerly called "ebrary") ebooks. All Proquest ebooks are available to read in full in your browser online. Policies on downloading to read offline vary. To download an ebook or a portion of an ebook:

• For select titles, you may download the entire ebook in EPUB or PDF and view it for up to 14 days through Adobe Digital Editions. 
• For other titles, you may download pages in PDF format. The number of pages available to download can vary and is determined by the publisher.

Ebook records in ProQuest Ebook Central list downloading and checkout options available for each title. For additional help, see ProQuest Ebook Central Help or Ask a Librarian.

Adobe Digital Editions software is required for viewing downloaded EBSCO and ProQuest ebooks. 

To download a book in the HathiTrust collection you must log in with your UChicago CNet ID:

• Select the "login" link in the upper right.
• Select "University of Chicago" from the drop-down list of partner institutions and click "Continue."
• Log in using your CNet ID and password.

Once you are logged in, you may then select the "Download whole book" link when viewing full text to generate and save a PDF.

Early American Imprints

You may download a maximum of 25 pages at a time. Illustrations may be downloaded separately. See details.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

To download a PDF of the page images of an EEBO book, mark the record that you want. When you display your marked record and select the download link, you may choose to download the entire document or a specific page range. See details.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online/Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature

You may download a maximum of 250 pages. The brief citation includes the number of pages in a document. Click on the download icon. You may download an entire document if it is under 250 pages or you may select a specific page range. See details.

Sabin Americana

You may download a maximum of 50 pages at a time. See details.

ScienceDirect

You may download a single chapter at a time.

Springer Ebooks

You may download complete ebooks as PDFs.