Ebooks

Once a patron has searched the catalog for an ebook, they'll find that many are provided by a variety of academic databases and that Pratt Institute offers full text access through the external websites. But each database has its own tricks! The sections below will break down the more technical ins-and-outs of the following list of ebook providers. There is also an example from the catalog for each to help you get oriented with the tools.

• Berg Fashion Library
• Bloomsbury Design Library
• De Gruyter
• EBSCO
• Elsevier
• Emerald 
• Gale
• JSTOR
• Library Stack
• MetPublications
• Oxford
• Project Muse
• ProQuest

The Berg Fashion Library is a leading resource for fashion studies research, with text, media, and integrated sources. It offers ebooks as web browser texts.

Download option: No. 

Accessibility tools: Google Translate for full text; automatic zoom while hovering over images; related content below the chapter helps with further research.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Optimized with automatic image zoom intact.

Smart phone use: Easy with manual image zoom.

The Bloomsbury Design Library offers a comprehensive collection of reference texts and museum images, focusing on the history, theory, and practice of crafts and design studies. It offers ebooks as web browser texts.

Download option: No.

Accessibility tools: Related content along the left column helps with further research.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Easy.

De Gruyter Online is a scholarly publishing house that specializes in academic literature and offers access to hundreds of academic journals.

Download option: PDF by section/chapter. Ignore the pricing tab at the top of the screen! There will be a green check-marked box across from it that says "Licensed Access" to confirm you have access to the ebook.

Accessibility tools: None.

Built-in online reader: None.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Optimized, perhaps easier to navigate than desktop version.

EBSCO is an amalgamation of research databases, e-journals, and ebooks, as well as the service upon which our catalog's Quick Search feature runs. In addition to the sidebar link, EBSCO ebooks are able to be viewed directly in the Quick Search catalog entry by scrolling to the Table of Contents at the bottom of the entry.

Download option: ePUB via creation of free EBSCOhost account. Export up to 100 pages as a PDF or to Google Drive.

Accessibility tools: Dictionary widget; zoom buttons are permanent on smart phone reader.

Built-in online reader: Yes.

Tablet use: Not optimized, very difficult to navigate.

Smart phone use: Optimized.

Please visit the Ebsco Ebook User Guide for more information about downloading content and other exciting features. 

Known Issues: If the record for an individual ebook is opened in a separate tab or window the following error message will be appear when accessing full text content:

To avoid this issue advise users to avoid opening additional tabs or windows while browsing results in Quick Search or any other Ebsco product. 

Elsevier's ScienceDirect database focuses on interdisciplinary research across scholarly journals and reference texts. It offers ebooks as web browser texts.

Download option: PDF of either full book or by section/chapter.

Accessibility tools: Recommended articles on web text sections for further research.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Optimized.

Emerald Insight is a scholarly publisher offering a portfolio of journals, books, and case studies for a small group of academic fields. It offers ebooks as web browser texts.

Download option: PDF and ePUB by section/chapter.

Accessibility tools: None.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Not optimized, very difficult.

Smart phone use: Awkward, but readable.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is an ebook database designed with the library research experience in mind and is host to over 12,000 ebooks.It offers ebooks as web browser texts, as well as downloadable files.

Download option: PDF by section/chapter.

Accessibility tools: None.

Built-in online reader: Yes.

Tablet use: Optimized.

Smart phone use: Optimized.

JSTOR is one of the most well-known sources for academic research, with over 12 million articles, books, and primary texts. Their ebooks are less optimized for user-friendly access than their other material.

Download option: PDF by section/chapter.

Accessibility tools: None.

Built-in online reader: Yes.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Not optimized, very difficult.

Library Stack is a more experimental digital publication database than the other traditional layouts in this list, and is therefore less intuitive to use. The system works more like a traditional library ebook lending system.

• While you can get into Library Stack and see which ebooks are available to you via links in our catalog, in order to borrow these ebooks you will need to register for your own free account. You can use your Pratt One Key or another email address and password.
• Borrow/check out the ebook for 7 days at a time.
  • If you finish the ebook before the 7 days, you can let the extra time run out or click the Return button to send it back early.
• Each ebook can only be checked out by one person at a time.

Download option: None.

Accessibility tools: None.

Built-in online reader: Yes.

Tablet use: Awkward.

Smart phone use: Not optimized, very difficult.

MetPublications offers access to five decades of material on art history, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Download option: PDF of full text.

Accessibility tools: Offers related titles and additional resources for further research.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Awkward, but readable.

Oxford Reference is a leading reference database, with over 2 million entries across 25 subject areas pooled together from the Oxford University Press's Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. It offers ebooks as web browser texts.

Download option: None.

Accessibility tools: Images have manual zoom options.

Built-in online reader: N/A.

Tablet use: Awkward, but readable.

Smart phone use: Not optimized.

Project MUSE provides books and journals centered in the fields of the humanities and social sciences.

Download option: PDF by section/chapter.

Accessibility tools:  None.

Built-in online reader: None.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Easy.

ProQuest Ebook Central offers more than a million ebooks, pulled from one of the biggest collections of authoritative and academic content available online. When you leave the library catalog to view the ebook on ProQuest, it will ask you to do a one-time sign-in with your Pratt OneKey.

Download option: PDF by section/chapter. Full book download via free Adobe Digital Editions software install. ProQuest offers step-by-step instructions on every type of download they offer and which restrictions may apply.

Accessibility tools:  Search function for online reader.

Built-in online reader: Yes.

Tablet use: Easy.

Smart phone use: Awkward for online reader capabilities; website navigation is easy.