LibGuides: Sociology: Find books and ebooks

Books from the library

HELM Catalog
Search books in the WSU library and other HELM libraries.

Register for a Boston Public Library eCard

If you work, live, or study in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are eligible for a Boston Public Library (BPL) eCard.

An eCard gives you immediate access to the following from your own computer:

An account in our online catalog that allows you to rate, review, and share the books, movies, and music that you love
Electronic Resources (magazine and journal articles from online databases)
Downloadable eBooks, Audio, Video, and Music
Digital Magazines
Streaming Media

For more information:
https://guides.masslibsystem.org/BPL

SIGN UP FOR THE BPL eCARD HERE

Ebooks from the Worcester State University Library

The following sources for ebooks are available through the WSU Library:

E-Books on EBSCO Host
Includes our collection from NetLibrary. All e-book links for individual titles in our online catalog will link here.
Ebrary (now ProQuest eBooks Central)
With over 143,000 downloadable ebooks in all disciplines, Proquest eBooks (formerly ebrary) offers authoritative titles in a wide range of subject areas, along with powerful tools to help you find, use, and manage the information you need.
Credo Reference
Start here! Cross search 600+ reference titles from over 60 scholarly publishers. Full text of the best reference books, along with images, visual concept map of results, and more.
Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
A collection of 65+ e-Reference book titles from Gale. Includes additional titles licensed by the WSU library.
Oxford Reference
Bringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias, Oxford Reference provides results that range from short-entry, general reference to more in-depth articles on specialized subjects in 25 different subject areas.

*Please check out the off-campus access page if you have question about accessing the source from outside the WSU campus network.

Ebooks Collections on the World Wide Web

The following sites offer books in electronic format at no charge:

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
A collection of public domain and open access documents with a focus on American and English literature as well as Western philosophy.
Digital Book Index
Digital Book Index provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free.
Free e-books
Independent writers offer both entertaining fiction/romance for your enjoyment and non-fiction to help you find information from self-help to business growth.
Google Books
Search and preview millions of books from libraries and publishers worldwide using Google Book Search. Discover a new favorite or unearth an old classic. (See the "How to Use Google Books for Research" video clip on this page.)
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
The Library of the Internet: Shakespeare Edition
The Library publishes works that have been rigorously reviewed by scholars in the field. Here you will find Shakespeare's fully-edited plays and poems, critical and reference materials, and a full exploration of the context of Shakespeare's writing.
Making of America
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
National Academies Press
The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently-researched information on important matters in science and health policy. It offers more than 8,500 titles in PDF format. Almost all of these PDFs can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.
Online Books Page
The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all.
Open Library
Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published.
Page by Page Books
Page by Page Books is committed to bringing you a wide selection of the best public domain books available, all in an easy to read format.
Project Bartleby
Project Bartleby is the preeminent publisher of reference and verse providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information on the web, free of charge.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is an online library of over 60,000 free eBooks.

Books from Other Libraries

If the WSU library doesn't have what you need, consider the following resources:

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Use the Interlibrary Loan Desk to borrow a book or article from another library. Your item will be emailed or delivered to the library, usually free of charge.
WILL: Walk-in Interlibrary Loan program to visit and borrow books from participating Massachusetts Public Higher Education (MPHE) member libraries.
Academic and Research Collaborative (ARC): Get an ARC card at the library's main desk to visit and borrow books from these Worcester Area ARC member libraries
WorldCat - a free database of resources at libraries worldwide. You can find titles you need in a regional library.